VS2010 – tips and tricks - quicker file comparison in pending changes window

Sometimes I need to compare some local pending change of a file to the latest TFS version.

This can be done like in the screenshot below,

• grabbing the mouse,
• right click on the file
• select Compare –> With Latest Version

This is nice if you are a fan of mouse driven development. I’m more the fan of shortcuts so an alternate solution is the following:

• navigate to the pending changes window
• press SHIFT + Double-Left-Mouse-Click on the file or
• SHIFT + Enter for the selected File

then a background comparison is started.

One easy way to navigate to the pending changes window is pressing CTRL + TAB and navigate with the keyboard arrows to the pending changes window.

Another solution would be to configure some shortcut for the pending changes tool window.

Faster XAML editing in VS2010

If you are working with the XAML Editor in VS2010 you’ve maybe realized that it’s much better than with VS2008.

You can even be faster if you change the editor from default XAML Editor to “Source Code (Text) Editor”.

You not only have VS IntelliSense, XML collapsing and the XAML context menu support, also you have full ReSharper support!

How to change the default editor:

1. Right-click on a XAML file in the Solution Explorer
2. Select "Open With..."
3. Select "Source Code (Text) Editor"
4. Click on "Set as Default"
5. Click OK
6. You're done!

With SHIFT + F7 you can change from “Source Code (Text) Editor” to the default XAML editor with its split view, navigator, etc.

Source: http://weblogs.asp.net/fmarguerie/archive/2009/01/29/life-changer-xaml-tip-for-visual-studio.aspx

TFS2010–Single Server Installation COM Error

After installing a new TFS2010 single server instance I had the following error in my event log:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID
{61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1}
and APPID
{61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1}
to the user VB-TFS2010\WSSSERVICE SID (S-1-5-21-1484069085-12520411-2351891930-1013) from address LocalHost (Using LRPC). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

The problem was that SharePoint Administration Service was running under Local System Account. I realized I forgot to set the appropriate service account.

How to find out that the problem was coming from SharePoint?
Source: http://geekswithblogs.net/mhamilton/archive/2006/12/19/101568.aspx

TFS how to: create a feature branch from your working copy

Make your changes at your local environment.
Don’t do a normal check in, instead do the following:

1. Go to Source Control Explorer
2. Right click on the source control folder on which you want to create the feature branch.
3. Select Branching and Merging > Branch
   
4. Name your branch.
   Select Version Type: Workspace Version (which is your local source version) and the appropriate workspace which should be selected automatically.
   
5. Now the changes are committed to the branch instead of to the main line.

If you want to continue to work on the branched version you have to open the branched solution file.

Force VS2010 to garbage collect

Try Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F12, twice

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/camerons/archive/2010/12/15/force-vs-to-garbage-collect.aspx

Be more fluent in your test asserts.

How readable are your tests really.
Does it help to use one of these fluent assert extensions?

• http://vstestingextensions.codeplex.com/
• http://code.google.com/p/fluent-assert/
• http://fluentassertions.codeplex.com/

TFS2010 How to enable new features for upgraded projects

Allan Clark has written an interesting blog posts which summarize all the things you have to do, to upgrade your migrated TFS projects to be able to use the new feature set.

You’ll find the blog post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/allclark/archive/2010/12/08/enababling-new-application-lifecycle-management-features-for-visual-studio-2010-in-upgraded-team-projects.aspx