Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server 2010

After un-installing VS2008 because I never used it and it seemed to have so many issues, I had to re-install it because I had some work that needed to done that used the Business Intelligence part of it. The problem I had was hooking up VS2008 to the Team Foundation Server which was deployed in 2010. I have no idea how it TFS is setup but that was the current configuration.

Of course, my TFS setup flawlessly in VS2010, however in VS2008 initially there was not even a source control option. So here were the steps to get it working:

1. Install VS2008 Team Explorer

2. Install VS2008 Service Pack 1. NOTE: This took a loooong time to install. I even received an error saying it failed to install. Dummy me installed it again...the second time it showed the same problem. I opened up the error log and saw that MOST of it installed but the final component did not. I think there was regarding SQL Server compact or something. SO I made the command decision to ignore this error for the time being until it comes bite me at a later date...

3. I returned back to VS2008 still no go with TFS. I would type in the URL to the TFS server but it could not connect. So I installed VS2008 SP1 forward patch. Still no go....

4. Setup the TFS url like this: https://tfsXX.servername.net/tfs/projectname/ with the final forward slash. It will appear to work, it is NOT - no project show in the Team Explorer....

5. Close VS2008.

6. Open up regedit, edit this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/VisualStudio/9.0/TeamFoundation/Servers, remove that final slash.

The regedit tip was provided to me by this post: http://coderjournal.com/2010/02/connecting-visual-studio-2008-to-team-foundation-server-2010/comment-page-1/#comment-69411

7. Now reopen VS2008. Should work now.

Good luck! Although this is probably such old technology that no one will EVER need this post :)