Ability to upgrade from VS2008 Developer Edition to full Team Suite?

Question

Hello,

This is probably a dumb question, but I haven't been able to find any answers Googling for it.

We just purchased the 'Step-Up' license to go from VS2008 Developer Edition to the full VS2008 Team Suite.

Is it possible to simply 'upgrade' the install?  If so, what would the step-by-step instructions be?  (I'm assuming we'd have to re-install SP1 afterwards, at the very least..  possibly Team Explorer also?)

Are there any 'gotchas' to doing it this way?

Thank you,

  --Chad Rogers

Answer 1

Hi Chad,

Just to keep it simple, you can follow the steps below to upgrade:

1. Uninstall current VS2008 Developer Edition
2. Install VS2008 Team Suite
3. Install TFS 2008 Team Explorer
4. Apply VS2008 Service Pack 1
5. (If using Database projects) Install VS2008 Database GDR R2
6. (If desired) Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server Power Tools


Thanks,
Alin,
PRAKTIK Consulting
TFS Hosting and TFS Consulting Services.

Answer 2

Hi Alin,

So you're saying that we will have to uninstall the current VS2008 Developer Edition?

We were hoping not to have to do that..

  --Chad Rogers

Answer 3

Hi Chad,

I would look at it as an investment - spend 10 minutes now to unistall and avoid any possible confilict/issue in the future. Do you have any reason not to, beside the time?

Thanks,
Alin,
PRAKTIK Consulting
TFS Hosting and TFS Consulting Services.

Answer 4

Well, these machines are highly 'customized' by the developers, installing various libraries/"helpers"/addons/whatever, and they can't tell me everything they've added (they randomly add stuff as they research/need/find things)..

So I'm sure that completely uninstalling VS2008 will make those things 'break' then I'll constantly get complaints that they're code isn't working now [and they won't realize it's because of something THEY installed] and blame it on the change in software, blaming Visual Studio itself..

I just want to avoid that personal headache.  (I'm just an IT guy, so if something doesn't work it's not like I know enough about VS to troubleshoot and identify what 3rd-party thing they need to reinstall to get they're code working again..)

Plus, given the huge time it takes to install, I'm thinking the uninstall is longer than just 10 minutes.. :-P

   --Chad Rogers
 

Answer 5

The uninstall is much faster then the install. If you get any specific complains  that something 'broke', please bring it up in this forum, but other then that, I wouldn't worry to much. Developers should be able to identify and address 3rd-party VS add-ons reinstallation by themself, rather them escalating to IT. If a developer complains that a Visual Studio unistall/re-install broke thir own code, I would consider upgrading the Developer as well ;)  

Maybe you can test this process with a couple of the sharpest devs first - if they don't have any trouble, you can roll the process out, incorporating any aditional steps they took make things work.

Thanks,
Alin,
PRAKTIK Consulting
TFS Hosting and TFS Consulting Services.

Answer 6

Hi Chad

As for the settings of IDE, we can export them via Tools >> Import and Export Settings...

Thanks.

Figo Fei

MSDN Subscriber Support in Forum

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Answer 7

Hi Chad,

Just to keep it simple, you can follow the steps below to upgrade:

1. Uninstall current VS2008 Developer Edition
2. Install VS2008 Team Suite
3. Install TFS 2008 Team Explorer
4. Apply VS2008 Service Pack 1
5. (If using Database projects) Install VS2008 Database GDR R2
6. (If desired) Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server Power Tools


Thanks,
Alin,
PRAKTIK Consulting
TFS Hosting and TFS Consulting Services.

OK,

Dumb question, but which entry(ies) in Add/Remove do I need to uninstall in Step #1, and in what order?

It appears VS2008 adds a lot of individual add/remove entries!

  --Chad Rogers

Answer 8

Hi,

Look for the entry that has the same icon as Visual Studio - that should be the main package you should reinstall. You can leave the others alone.

Thank you,
Alin