TFS over VPN connection - is there a way to save the userid/password on client?

Question

I often connect to my work TFS instance over VPN. Becasue my home computer is not on the domain, I'm forced to enter my userid/password for each tf.exe command. Is there a way to cache or save this locally?

Answer 1

Have you tried setting your username and password to exactly the same as your work environment? I seem to recall that this works for file shares because it passes the hashed credentials along and as long as they match it succeeds.

Answer 2

Though I can't solve your problem completely, I can make half of it go away (this command is set up to run SSMS, not VS, though you can change it):

%windir%\system32\runas.exe /netonly /user:DOMAIN\UserID "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\SqlWb.exe"

The "/netonly" switch on RUNAS.exe authenicates it at the destination, meaning that you can give it a username and password that you don't currently have access to the DC for. We use it to run SSMS and login using Integrated Authentication to a SQL Server that sits on a different domain. Even though I can't see to DC for that domain from my computer, this command still allows me to pass my username and password for that domain to that server.

You could set a shortcut to this command and it would only prompt you for your password when you launch VS, which makes this a little easier, as you don't have to type in your Domain\Username every time anymore.

Answer 3

You can definitely do it! I am running off the domain on Windows XP. A coworker of mine just showed me how. Here are the steps:

1. Open up Control Panel.
2. Open up User Accounts.
3. Select Change an Account and then choose your current account.
4. On the left, under Related Tasks, select Manage my network passwords That will launch the Stored User Names and Passwords dialog.
5. From here, you click the Add button and type in the full server path of the TFS server (server.abc.xyz), the full username (ABC\username) and password to use for TFS access.

That should do the trick for you. I hate TFS a little less now. ;)