Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 CTP 1 now available [NOTE: This is NOT Go-Live!]

Microsoft Downloads - Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 CTP 1

This is a Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Visual Studio 2013 Update 2.

Version: 30129.00

Date Published: 1/31/2014

rm_Client.exe, 965 KB

rm_DeploymentTrial90.exe, 962 KB

rm_Server.exe, 967 KB

tfs_express.exe, 785 KB

tfs_server.exe, 791 KB

VS2013.2 CTP.exe, 1.2 MB

vs2013.2.ctp1_tfs_enu.iso, 2.5 GB

vs2013.2.ctp1_tfs_exp_enu.iso, 527.0 MB

Visual Studio 2013 Updates provide continuous value to customers, adding new capabilities year-round to features in the main product release. These releases will be aligned with the core software development trends in the market, ensuring developers and development teams always have access to the best solution for building modern applications.

This is a Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Visual Studio 2013 Update 2. These cumulative updates to Visual Studio 2013 include a variety of bug fixes and capability improvements. More details can be found here.

Statement of Support:

PLEASE NOTE: This Community Technology Preview has not been subject to final validation and is not meant to be run on production workstations or servers.

For the Visual Studio update package: The recommended approach for upgrading Visual Studio on test workstations is installing the latest Visual Studio Update CTP on top of an RTM release or a previous CTP build of that Update. Visual Studio CTPs can be upgraded to a different build.

For full-upgrade packages (ex: TFS, Release Management, etc): Do not install an Update CTP on a production server, as it will put the server in an unsupported state. Unlike with Visual Studio CTPs, installing a full-upgrade package CTP completely replaces the current release on the server with the CTP. Full-upgrade package CTPs cannot be upgraded to future CTPs or releases nor “downgraded” to a previous release.

Note: Release Management Update 2 CTP is time-sensitive. The software will stop running ninety days after you install it. You will not receive any other notice. You may not be able to access data used with the software when it stops running.

Description of Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 CTP 1

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Technology improvements

The following technology improvements have been made in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 CTP 1.
Agile Planning

Team Foundation Server
• The portfolio backlogs have performance improvements during web access navigation.
• You can query on tags in Visual Studio and through web access.
• You can apply tags to work items in Visual Studio.
• You can apply permissions for who can add new tags.
• REST API is available for work item tracking tagging.
• You can edit tags in the Excel add-in for Team Foundation Server.
• You can configure non-working days, and these are excluded from burndown charts.
• Cumulative Flow Diagram start dates are configurable.
• Lightweight charts can be pinned to project or team homepages.
• You can customize the colors in lightweight charts.
• The look and feel of the project and team homepage is updated.

Testing Tools

• This update provides to testers and test leads the ability to export test artifacts so that these can be sent by using email or as printouts and shared with stakeholders who do not have access to TFS.

Release Management

• The tags are designed to perform the same operation across the servers. If there are server specific actions, the user can always add the specific server and the corresponding actions at that level in the deployment sequence.
• To configure a group of server by using same tag implies that you can set values for the whole group and all the servers in the group therefore share common values for all variables.
• You can easily deploy to identical or clustered servers without having to repeat the deployment sequence on each server.
• You can Copy Tags across stages and across Templates. You can retain the same deployment sequence with all the tags and servers when copied to other stages or Release templates under the same environment.

Debugger

• Identified some refactoring when doing this to increase the development and testing cost.
• Getting the highlighting correct on search is the only piece left when you search JSON return content.
• You can inspect values of objects using the debugger windows. This also involves enabling multi-dump debugging.
• You can trigger a data prefetch in Windows to test a Windows Store application.
• You can programmatically modify the symbol include or exclude behavior to improve debugging performance.

Diagnostics

• The Script Debugger, DOM Explorer and JavaScript Console can now be used against debug HTML and JavaScript that is running inside a WebView control hosted in Windows Store Applications of all types (HTML or JavaScript, Managed and Native).

Profiler

• There is a new CPU Usage tool for examining which managed, native, and JavaScript functions are using the CPU. The CPU Usage tool replaces the previous CPU Sampling tool for Windows Store Apps and has fast time filtering, fast thread filtering, and an improved Just My Code experience.
• The diagnostics hub now allows more than one tool to be run at the same time. Data from each tool is correlated on a common timeline for faster and easier performance analysis. Tools that can be combined are:
  • CPU Usage
  • Energy Consumption
  • HTML UI Responsiveness
  • XAML UI Responsiveness

IntelliTrace

• You can load the SQL statement in a new query window and run a test execution plan in Visual Studio rather than needing to open and use other tools such as SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
• You can see problems that are collected by the MMA grouped. This helps to easily identify key problems from many instances.
• Group the performance events by entry point and by the slowest node. This will reduce the overall number of rows and make it easier to identify a specific event to investigate.
• Add a hotpath indicator to the Perf Event Details for each of the slowest nodes.

Purple

• In Visual Studio Ultimate 2013, when you use TFGit as a source control system, you can access the deployed version of the solution by opening the iTrace file that is generated by the Microsoft Monitoring Agent.

Fixed issues

Note Unless otherwise indicated, linked items will take you to Microsoft Connect webpages.
Code Analysis

• Visual Studio 2013 Code Analysis check-in policy does not trigger on websites.

IntelliTrace

• A Security.VerificationException is raised on a custom event handler if IntelliTrace is enabled.
• Visual Studio crashes when loading a corrupted IntelliTrace file.

Visual Studio IDE

• When you open webpages by using the internal Visual Studio Web Browser, you will no longer receive JavaScript errors.

...

Important This update applies to Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server (TFS). Visual Studio and TFS installation mechanics are different. The Visual Studio update is an update that installs on top of whatever is already installed on the computer. The TFS update is a full layout that replaces whatever is installed on the computer. Before you try to apply the TFS update, make sure that you have a full backup of your current databases. If the TFS update installation fails, you will be unable to restart the update or roll back to the earlier version of TFS without performing a restore.

The Release Management update is a full layout that includes the latest feature additions and bug fixes for "Release Management for Visual Studio 2013". Before you try to apply the Release Management update, make sure that you have a full backup of your current databases. If the Release Management update installation fails, you will be unable to restart the update or roll back to the earlier version of Release Management without performing a restore operation.

Awesome to see the cadence continues... I would expect that if there's another CTP that that might be Go Live (i.e. okay to use in production) but we'll see. RTW date? My WAG is at Build 2014, April 2nd.