

Upon completion of VSC 2015 installation, I reviewed a list of programs that were installed as part of setting up VSC 2015. Step 2: Review Size of VSC 2015 Installation
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Step 1: Download and install Visual Studio 2015 Community (VSC 2015) edition – which is free.Īs indicated in Figure 3, I opted to do a custom installation without any features – yet, a minimum 6G of free space was required: Let me elaborate further on this unfavourable workaround via a step-by-step installation process that I used recently: Visual Studio 2015) which is not always ideal and comes at an expense of your storage disk-space. Instead it requires one to install corresponding Visual Studio version (i.e.
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Whilst the workaround on integration between Microsoft Excel and TFS 2015 on-prem instance will not require additional software installations provided (you had already installed earlier versions of Team Explorer), unfortunately, the workaround for creating new Team Projects is not that straightforward. For instance, Figure 2 shows several instances of Team Foundation Add-in (which represent different versions of Team Explorer installed in my client machine) and regardless of what version of the Add-in I activate, they all seem to connect to my TFS 2015 on-prem instance.įigure 2: Microsoft Excel Add-ins showing Team Foundation Add-in The good news is that you can still use earlier versions of Team Explorer to integrate Microsoft Excel to TFS 2015 on-prem instance.

Consequently, this section addresses one of the ways to circumvent the aforementioned issues. “Hey, IT guy (they usually don’t know our names), where is my Team Explorer 2015?”Īs I’ve learnt (mostly, the hard way) over the years as a system administrator is that you always need a plan B – regardless of limitless software assurances from vendors. Thus, when we load a new machine for such business-oriented users, we usually throw in a Team Explorer to help them integrate Excel with TFS.Īs a result of the missing Team Explorer, I now have to explain myself to these users with questions that sometimes go as follows: user stories, product backlog) by adding and removing work items using the TFS Add-on for Excel. Business Analysts, project managers, SCRUM masters etc.) who have gotten used to managing business requirements (i.e. TFS Project Management using Microsoft Excel and ProjectĪnother reason as to why the missing Team Explorer is a big deal is that I have business-oriented users (i.e. The error message, shown in Figure 1, comes up when I pertinaciously create a TFS 2015 Team Project using Team Explorer 2013: No, I cannot create new Team Project against TFS 2015 on-prem instance when using earlier versions of Team Explorer. Team Explorer 2013) and be able to do things like configure workspaces, download source control, check-in pending files etc. Yes, I can connect to TFS 2015 on-prem instance using earlier versions of Team Explorer (i.e. “Surely, if I claim to be familiar with TFS for as long as I claim to have, I should be able to use earlier versions of Team Explorer?” Anyway, I digress, Team Explorer is basically a client software package required to create Team Project against an on-prem server instance. Honestly, I’ve never understood the business model by Microsoft as to why we have to step out of Team Foundation Server Configuration Center in order to create TFS Team Project as it already requires one to be at least a member of a Project Collection Administrator role to be able to set it up. Again, if you have administered TFS for as long as I have, you should already know that you can do just about anything on Team Foundation Server Configuration Center except create new Team Projects. I suppose you are wondering why I am suddenly up in arms for a supposedly missing standalone Team Explorer 2015 installer. After going through every possible link on search engine results relating to “Team Explorer 2015,” I concluded that only Team Explorer Everywhere 2015 was released this time around. So you will understand my bewilderment when I couldn’t locate these installers following a successful setup of on-premise (on-prem) TFS 2015 server instance for my employer. If you have been using Team Foundation Server (TFS) for as long as I have, you will recall that just about every release of TFS has always been accompanied by standalone Team Explorer and Team Explorer Everywhere software installers.
