New Team Foundation Server features in Service Pack 1 Beta (and Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Betas)

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Visual Studio Team System The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Beta has just been released.  Here's the official announcement.  You can register for and download the Service Pack updates at https://connect.microsoft.com/visualstudio.  (The Connect site is a bit finnicky. If you get stuck, see below.*)

 

The usual caveats about betas apply, but if you install SP1 Beta, I am assured that when SP1 goes final (RTM) later this year, you can uninstall the beta of SP1 and then install the SP1 RTM.

Since the theme of my life this week is Team Foundation Server, you may also be interested to know that Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1 Beta has also been released.  The same update path from Beta to RTM will apply.

And the great news is that the Service Pack 1 of TFS contains more than just bug fixes; it also contains some quite useful new functionality.  Here are some highlights:

Version Control, WorkItem Tracking and Data Warehouse performance and scale improvements (influenced by our continued internal deployment of TFS).

"Extranet Support" which allows TFS to be more easily deployed in environments where people on the internet need access to TFS without using a VPN.

WIT Custom Control support, a new extensibility mechanism which allows people to design work item forms that host custom controls.

Support for Office 2007 (Project and Excel)

Detailed Merge History API which allows more detailed analysis and change tracking 

There is much more in there.  For more details, please see Brian Harry’s blog entry and subsequent discussion. You may also be interested to see his previous entry, which talks a bit about our extensive internal use ("dogfooding") of TFS.

(*Getting Visual Studio Service Pack 1 Beta through Connect: Start here.  You have to click on "Available programs" on the left-hand side, then fill out the quick survey for Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1. You will then be approved by the product team, and a few hours later, you'll get an email to your Passport email address to indicate that you've been accepted into the program. Then, when you log into Connect, you'll see the specific program and you can download the bits from there.)