Connecting to TFS Preview from Visual Studio 2010

Took me a few minutes to figure out why I was getting an error connecting to TFS Preview.

First (and most obviously) you need Visual Studio 2010 with SP1 applied. You should have SP1 by now anyway.

Secondly (and less obviously) you need to install KB2581206.

There is a link to “download software” on your TFS Preview Admin page which lists all this but it’s easy to miss the link to KB2581206.

When you have the hotfix installed, connecting is just the same as normal. From the “Add Team Foundation Server” dialogue in VS2010:

• Name or URL of Team Foundation Server = [your account name].tfspreview.com
• Connection Details:
• Path = tfs
• Port = 443
• Protocol = HTTPS

You authenticate with a web identity provider e.g. Windows Live ID.

While its in preview, this hosted TFS solution is in Microsoft’s Chicago data centre. Even though it’s a hosted solution, you can still have your own TFS Build Agents.