One issue I ran into while playing around with the TFS Preview is connecting to a different TFS Preview account from Windows 8. I don't think this would be an issue in Windows 7 but by having a Windows Live ID integrated with my windows 8 account TFS preview seems to always try to use that ID to authenticate and using 'Choose different credentials' doesn't load properly. This prevented me from logging into (mytfs2.tfspreview.com) when l'm logged into Windows 8 with a Windows Live ID associated to (mytfs1.tfspreview.com). To overcome this problem after several failed attempts to choose different credentials I've decide to try adding my other Windows Live ID account - the one lined to Windows 8 - as a member on (mytfs2.tfspreview.com) and that successfully allowed me to log on to (mytfs2.tfspreview.com).
To Add a new team member to TFS Preview you can follow the steps below.
1) Logon using the currently associated Live ID
2) Go to the manage members section and click add
3) Fill in the new member's details
4) Logon as the new member
If anyone knows how I can force choosing a different credential in TFS Preview with Windows 8 please let me know!
A while back I was given a TFS Preview invitation code by Anthony Borton and have been meaning to write this post since so here it comes :-)
In this initial post we'll just cover the basics of setting up the TFS Preview account and connecting Visual Studio 11 to it to upload some source code.
Step 1: Setup your account
To setup your account head to http://www.tfspreview.com and follow the steps shown in detail in the screenshots below.
Once your account has been created and you're logged in you'll be able to see you're created project as can be seen in the screenshot below and by selecting the project you'll be able to perform most of the common TFS tasks by using the features shown here. We'll be going through some of these in the next posts.
The steps above complete the initial account setup for TFS preview and now we can connect to it.
Step 2: Connecting to TFS Preview
The following screenshots show how we can connect to the TimeServe project I've created under my TFS preview account. With Visual Studio 11 as you can see in the following screenshots everything works out of the box. However, if you wish to use Visual Studio 2010 then you need to ensure you have Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed and also KB2581206. Once you have these installed the process is the same as below.
Now that the steps to setup and connect to TFS Preview have been completed we can then start using TFS in the same way as connecting to a standard TFS install as can be seen in the screenshots below.
In the next few posts we will go through the different features available in the TFS preview as we develop some features for the TimeServe project. In the meantime, below are some useful links with information on TFS Preview
- TFS Preview Feature Suggestions
- TFS Preview Blog
- TFS Preview Twitter account
- TFS Preview Forum
- TFS Preview on the Visual Studio ALM Blog
A few years ago I blogged about the History of the Windows Start button and with the releases of the Windows 8 Developer preview and the Windows 8 Consumer preview I thought it's time to revisit the start button again.
As you may have read in my previous post about the start button one of the main issues with it from a usability point of view is that users click on the 'Start' button to start everything they have to do such as launching programs and they also have to do the same to 'End' what they have to do as well such as when shutting down a pc. With the release of Windows Vista Microsoft seemed to change the start button by removing the text start from the button and this looked like it has addressed the issue of the start button usability and the same was brought across in Windows 7.
However, with the Windows 8 Developer preview and the introduction of the new start screen for the Windows 8 touch functionality I think Microsoft shifted the inconsistency somewhere else. Whilst the start button still had the start text removed as per Windows Vista & Windows 7, clicking the button made users switch context between Windows 8's desktop mode and Windows 8 touch mode. I have personally found this to be very unusable and confusing. The main reason for this confusion in my view is that a lot of us are probably quite used to using the start menu to launch programs and do quick searches, and in Windows 8, by default this was my expectation too. Nevertheless every time I clicked on the start button in the Windows 8 Developer preview it took me to the Windows 8 touch mode rather than allowing me to launch the programs in the same way I did in previous versions of Windows. Annoying eh... yes, BUT this is where the Windows 8 Consumer preview comes in.
With Windows 8 Consumer preview one thing that Microsoft did that I thought was very clever is actually get rid of the start button all together. With that change, I think Microsoft managed to remove the old and new expectations of what the start button should do and thus making in easier for consumers to get used to the new changes. With the start button removed, I now don't get confused any more when wanting to launch programs or things like note-pad or the run command and cmd shell. The reason for this is, I now know that I can just use the context menu by right clicking in the bottom left corner of my Windows 8 screen and it'll present me with all those menus in an easy to access manner that I think is no longer confusing!
I believe that the introduction of the context menus such as the one above and others that you see when exploring the corners of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview were some of the nice usability changes that have been introduced in this latest version of Windows.
Nice one Microsoft!
So it's been a few months since I last managed to post to this blog, a lot has been going on but now it's a new year and I'm looking forward to new beginnings!
Last year I managed to secure the domain wissa.net and I thought that it would be fitting that I re-launch my blog with a new design once everything has been migrated to the new domain. After a few months of inactivity due to being caught up with other things in life the redesign of the website is now complete thanks to the guys at www.redjungle.com and I am now back online and feeling much better than before! It's amazing how fast time flies, I was meant to be writing this post in January and it's already March now... crazy.
Hope you like the new website and stay tuned for more blog post content soon. One thing I'm also considering doing this year is having a few guest blog posts on my blog, if you're interested in writing a blog post on any tech related topic, .NET, SQL, Visual Studio, Azure or anything similar contact me via the contact page and we can take it from there.
Stay tuned!