TFS

There are many things I love about Team Foundation Server, but the supplied diff/merge tool is not one of them. It is – how can I put this? – somewhat basic. Indeed, I’ve heard tell of people going out of their way to avoid merges purely because they find the process so clunky. Here’s the good news – you can easily configure TFS to use a different, third-party, diff/merge tool, perhaps the one you’ve grown to know and love over many years of happy software development using other SCM products. Maybe you like WinMerge, or love TortoiseMerge. Perhaps you’re like my friend John and swear by SourceGear DiffMerge. Or maybe, like me, you’re a Beyond Compare fanboy. No problem, they can all be used by TFS. Here’s how: ...

Earlier this week I picked up a hire car and headed over to deepest Cheshire to install an instance of Team Foundation Server 2008 for a client. Before setting off, I tried to make sure that all the prerequisites were in place – i.e. that there was a suitably-specced server available for use, which was connected to the domain, that all the necessary service accounts were created, and firewall ports opened, etc. ...