Where I'm working now we use TFS2008, and people are generally unhappy with the auto-merging capabilities.
I was wondering, is it possible to change the merge engine? I know you can change the merge tool used by VS, but I'm not clear if this gets used when you do a local automatic merge, or what the deal is for merging branches.
(Before you say anything, I realise doing it manually is safer!)
Yes, upgrade to 2010 and you'll be MUCH happier. Significantly.
(I know it's not quite the answer you were looking for, but it's easy and it's true)
I never used it myself, but in a quest to be able to merge binary files, I encountered posts like http://www.neovolve.com/post/2007/06/19/using-winmerge-with-tfs.aspx
Visual Studio will use the configured tool to perform merging. Here's an useful post.
In visual studio 2008 you can do the following:
1) Tools->Options
2) Source Control->Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
3) Click the "Configure User Tools..." button
4) in pop-up click "Add"
5) in pop-up select the extensions you want to use your other merge engine with and select "Merge" in the Operation drop-down
You will need to know what your engine is expecting as passed in parameters but I would think the default of file 1 file 2 would fit most of them.