VSTS | TFS 2018 | TFS 2017 | TFS 2015 | TFS 2013
You use Team Explorer to manage work that is assigned to you, your team, or your team projects, and to coordinate your efforts with other team members to develop a project. Team Explorer is a plug-in that installs with Visual Studio or Eclipse. Working from different platforms, developers and stakeholders can effectively collaborate using Team Explorer connected to team projects hosted on Visual Studio Online or on-premises Team Foundation Server (TFS).
Tip
You can access the latest version of Visual Studio clients from the Visual Studio Downloads page. Additional options for connecting to VSTS or TFS include:
- Team Explorer Everywhere
- VSTS Plugin for Android Studio
- VSTS Plugin for IntelliJ
- Visual Studio Code
For information about compatibility among client and server versions, see Requirements and compatibility.
The operations available to you depend on which source control option—Team Foundation version control (TFVC) or Git—was selected to manage source code when the team project was created.
Team Explorer plug-in for Visual Studio
Team Explorer connects Visual Studio to team projects. You can manage source code, work items, and builds. Or, create a team project.
Tip
If you open Visual Studio and the Team Explorer pane doesn't appear, click the View/Team Explorer menu option.
| Home page with Git | Home page with TFVC |
|---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
Note
Some pages, such as Reports and Documents, only appear when an on-premises TFS is configured with the required resources, such as SQL Server Reporting Services and SharePoint.
If you don't need Visual Studio, but do want to connect to VSTS or TFS or get one or more Team Foundation add-ins, you can install the free Visual Studio Community.
Team Explorer plug-in for Eclipse
If you work in Eclipse or on a non-Windows platform, you can install the Team Explorer plug-in for Eclipse. Once installed, you can share your Eclipse projects by adding them to VSTS or TFS using Git or TFVC.
| Home page with Git (Eclipse) | Home page with TFVC (Eclipse) |
|---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
Note
Some pages, such as Reports and Documents, only appear when TFS is configured with the required resources, such as SQL Server Reporting Services and SharePoint.
Choose the page to access the task you want
Based on the page you select and the options configured for your team project.
Connect page
From the Connect page, you can select the team projects you want to connect to and quickly switch context between team projects.

| Git: Local Git repo | TFVC: Map workspace |
|---|---|
If you connect to a Git repo, you also can create, add, or clone repositories.![]() |
If you connect to a TFVC repo, you'll be prompted to Configure your workspace (TFVC) on first connect.![]() |
Important
From the Visual Studio plug-in, you can Create a team project. The ability to create team projects is not supported from the Eclipse plug-in. You can, however, create team projects from the web portal account/collection administration context.
Home, Work, and Build pages
Note
If inline images aren't displaying correctly, see Resolve images that don't display in Team Explorer.
Git and TFVC pages
The Git and TFVC repos support different pages and functions. You'll see one or the other pages depending on the team project and repro you connect to. For a comparison of the two repos, see Choosing the right version control for your project.
| Git | TFVC |
|---|---|
| - Changes: Save work with commits - Branches: Create work in branches - Pull Requests: Review code with pull requests - Sync: Update code with fetch and pull) |
- My Work: Suspend/resume work | Code review - Pending Changes: Manage pending changes | Find shelvesets | Resolve conflicts - Source Control Explorer: Add/view files and folders |
Report and Document pages (TFS only)
The Report page opens the Reporting Services report site. This page appears only when your team project has been configured with SQL Server Analysis Services and Reporting Services. Also, the option to Create Report in Microsoft Excel appears only when reporting has been configured for the team project.
From the Document page, you can open project portal and manage documents and document libraries. This page appears only if your team project has been configured with a SharePoint Products portal.
If your team project is missing one or more pages, you may be able to add functionality to your on premises TFS deployment.
Settings page
From the Settings page, you can configure administrative features for either a team project or team project collection. Configuring features in these areas requires you to be a member of a VSTS or TFS administrator group.
Most of the links open to a web portal administration page. Not all settings are available from the Team Explorer plug-in for Eclipse.
| Team project settings | Collection settings (TFS) |
|---|---|
| Required membership: Project Administrators - Security (manage project-level permissions) - Group membership: manage group permissions - Source Control: Configure the check-in and check-out policies (TFVC) - Work Item Areas (project-wide) - Work Item Areas (project-wide) - Portal Settings (Enable portal or process guidance) -Project Alerts |
Required membership: Project Collection Administrators - Security (manage project-level permissions) - Group membership: manage group permissions - Source Control: Configure the default workspace type for the collection (TFVC) - Process Template Manager: download or upload a process template |
To learn more about administration features, see Work in the web portal, administration context.
Related notes
You've now got a basic understanding of how to work in the Team Explorer add-in for Visual Studio and Eclipse.
Clients that connect to VSTS or TFS
In addition to connecting through Team Explorer, you can connect to a team project from these clients:
- Web portal
- Visual Studio Code
- Visual Studio Community
- Eclipse: Team Explorer Everywhere
- Office Excel
- Office Project
- PowerPoint Storyboarding
- Microsoft Test Manager
- Microsoft Feedback Client
Refresh Team Explorer
If data doesn't appear as expected, the first thing to try is to refresh your client. Refreshing your client updates the local cache with changes that were made in another client or in TFS. To refresh Team Explorer, do one of the following actions:
To refresh a page that you are currently viewing, choose
Refresh icon in the menu bar (or choose the F5 key).To refresh the team project you currently have selected, choose
Home, and then choose
Refresh icon (or choose the F5 key).To refresh the set of teams defined for the team project that you currently have selected, choose the Connect icon, and then choose
Refresh icon (or choose the F5 key).
To avoid potential errors, you should refresh your client application under the following circumstances:
- Process changes are made
- Work item type definitions are added, removed, renamed or updated
- Area or iteration paths are added, removed, renamed or updated
- Users are added to or removed from security groups or permissions are updated
- A team member adds a new shared query or changes the name of a shared query
- A build definition is added or deleted
- A team or team project is added or deleted.
Resolve images that don't display in Team Explorer
If an in-line image fails to display in a work item form you view from Team Explorer, but does display in the web portal, your credentials to access VSTS or TFS have expired.
You can resolve it with the following steps.
- In Visual Studio, click View>Other Windows>Web Browser (Or, use the shortcut Cltr+Alt+R).
- In the web browser, locate either your VSTS or TFS account.
- Login with your account.
- Refresh your work item in Team Explorer.
Additional tools provided with TFS Power Tools (Visual Studio 2015 & TFS 2015)
By installing TFS Power Tools, you gain access to these additional tools through the Team Explorer plug-in for Visual Studio:
- Process Template Editor
- Additional check-in policies for Team Foundation Version Control
- Team Explorer enhancements including Team Members
- Team Foundation Power Tool Command Line
- Test Attachment Cleaner
- Work Item Templates
Additional requirements may apply.
Note
For TFS 2017 and later versions, you can install the TFS Process Template editor from the Visual Studio Marketplace. You can use this version of the Process Editor to modify the old-style work item forms. You can't use it to edit forms associated with the new web forms.





