Distributing custom check-in policies & WIT controls using team members

The team members component of the TFS power tools (available here) has a feature to help TFS users distribute custom check-in policies and WIT controls. Basically, the administrator would add the dlls containing the policies and components to a special folder in version control and users then can install the components using the “personal settings” dialog in team members. These are the detailed steps:

1- Create two folders one for the check-in policies and one for the custom controls called $/[ProjectName]/TeamProjectConfig/CheckinPolicies & $/[ProjectName]/TeamProjectConfig/CustomControls respectively.

2- Add the dlls containing the check-in policies and custom controls under each folder correctly.

3- To install the components on any client, right click on the team members node in team explorer and execute “Personal Setttings” which will bring up the personal settings dialog. From this dialog check the install check box (you can optionally choose to verify if the dlls are signed or not) and then click download. This will download the dlls to your local computer, validate them and then install the correct keys in the registry to enable the check-in policies and custom controls.

Hope this feature comes in handy for distributing these components.