Professional Team Foundation Server

2.6. Understanding Team Explorer

Team Explorer is the client interface to Team Foundation Server. You can run Team Explorer by itself, or, if you install Visual Studio 2005 on the same machine as Team Explorer, it will integrate itself into the Visual Studio 2005 development environment.

Team Explorer is a free product, and can be downloaded as an .iso from Microsoft. You are required to have a client access license (CAL) to connect Team Explorer to an instance of Team Foundation Server. As a final note, it is very important that you install Team Explorer on your Team Foundation Server instance. Otherwise, you can't set up permissions and your server will be dead in the water.

2.6.1. Installing the Prerequisites

The following list explains the prerequisites that must be installed on the client tier before installing Team Explorer:

• All hardware and software requirements must be met. Refer to Chapter 1 for more information.

• Microsoft Excel 2003 and Microsoft Project Professional 2003 must be installed. If you have not done a Complete Installation of these products, make sure to install the .NET Programmability Support. Otherwise, you will not be able to use Excel and Project to access the Team System integration features.

2.6.2. Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configurations

This section applies only if you are installing Team Explorer onto a Windows Server 2003 machine. In this case, you need to apply the Windows 2000 default Internet Explorer security settings. This enables ...