Is there a way to unlock a file locked by another user without having to log in VSTFS 2008 using their account?

Question

I need to make changes to files locked by another user who is not accessible any more. How can I unlock the files without having to log in using their account in Visual Studio 2008 TFS?

Answer 1

If you have the relevent permissions to do so, yes. There's a good blog post on it here.

Answer 2

Yes, though you need to get familiar with the Team Foundation Server command line tf.exe.

See the post I did about this a while ago here http://www.woodwardweb.com/vsts/unlocking_files.html

Since I wrote that post (in October 2005) some alternatives have come about for people who don't want the hassle of learning a new command line.

You could install the TFS 2008 Power Tools on top of Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and you are able to do some of this from the UI in Visual Studio (Right click on the Developer in the Team Members node installed by the power tools and select "Show Pending Changes" and then "Undo..."

Alternatively, install the excellent (and free) TFS Sidekicks from Attrice.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Yes you can, but you need the privileges. See this article: http://blogs.msdn.com/sayanghosh/archive/2007/11/08/howto-undo-another-users-check-out-as-a-tfs-admin.aspx