Version Compatibility for Team Explorer
With the introduction of Visual Studio Team System 2008, you can use different versions of Team Explorer with Team Foundation Server. This topic describes the expected behavior when you use different versions of Team Explorer and Team Foundation Server together.
Compatibility with Team Foundation Server
You can use different versions of Team Explorer with Team Foundation Server. Specifically, you can use Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server with the Visual Studio 2005 Team System version of Team Explorer. You can also use the Visual Studio Team System 2008 version of Team Explorer with Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server. However, functionality is always limited to the functionality available in the older version. To make sure that you have all available functionality, use the same version of client and server.
Using the older version of Team Explorer
If you use the older version of Team Explorer to connect to the newer version of Team Foundation Server, you will be limited to using only the functionality available in the older version of Team Explorer. You will be unable to use new functionality in the newer version of Team Foundation Server. For more information about functionality in the newer version of Team Foundation Server, see What's New in Visual Studio Team System.
Using the newer version of Team Explorer
If you use the newer version of Team Explorer with the older version of Team Foundation Server, you will be limited to using only the functionality available in the older version of Team Foundation Server. You will be unable to use new functionality in the newer version of Team Explorer. For more information about functionality in the newer version of Team Explorer, see What's New in Visual Studio Team System.
Side by Side Compatibility
The newer version of Team Explorer will run side by side with older versions of Team Explorer and Visual Studio. For example, you can install the newer version of Team Explorer on the same computer together with the older version of Team Explorer. You can also install the newer version of Team Explorer on the same computer together with older versions of Visual Studio Team System products, such as Visual Studio Team System Development Edition. However, the newer version of Team Explorer will open as a separate application from the Visual Studio 2005 applications.
Compatibility with SharePoint Services and Technologies
If the version of SharePoint Products and Technologies is Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, you must update any computers that are running older versions of Team Explorer and that are used to create team projects. For more information, see How to: Upgrade Team Explorer for New Releases of SharePoint Products and Technologies.
See Also
Tasks
How to: Upgrade Team Explorer for New Releases of SharePoint Products and Technologies
Concepts
What's New in Visual Studio Team System
Version Compatibility for Team Foundation Build
Version Compatibility for Team Foundation Server