Where is Alerts Explorer in TFS Power Tools 2013?

Question

I'm running TFS client 2013 with Visual Studio 2013, TFS Server 2010.

I've installed TFS Power Tools 2013 but I am unable to locate Alerts Explorer

How do I open Alerts Explorer or is there some configuring I am missing?

Edit:

I know that in TFS 2012 and 2013 this is part of the product but I still need the functionality while using TFS 2010 with a more recent version of Visual Studio. Is there a way to have that functionality? The default Project Alerts functionality which is built-in is useless as it does not provide any control.

Answer 1

Hate to be a buzzkill but what you are trying to do simply will not work. There is no Alerts Explorer present in the Visual Studio 2013 client, even with the TFS 2013 Power Tools installed. Why? It appears they moved this functionality into the TFS 2013 web access so they didn't include it in the VS 2013 client. The VS 2013 client is not backwards compatible with TFS 2010 with respect to managing alerts.

The Alerts Explorer is a feature of TFS 2010 Power Tools. What you need to do is install the Visual Studio 2010 Team Explorer shell (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=329) and then install TFS 2010 Power Tools on top of that. It's going to be a pain to have to boot up the VS2010 shell just for alerts management but there's pretty much no other option. In case you are wondering the VS2010 shell looks just like VS2010 but it only contains the features for connecting to TFS. It's free... no licensing fees, etc.

Microsoft states this pretty plainly even though they use the word "might"... Q: How do I manage alerts when I connect to TFS 2010?

A: The instructions in this topic require you to connect to TFS 2012 or TFS 2013. If you have upgraded to VS 2012 or VS 2013 and are connecting to TFS 2010, then you might have to install Team Explorer 2010 side-by-side to manage alerts stored on TFS 2010.

Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181334.aspx

Answer 2

You can also get to the alerts via Visual Studio using the menu. Team > Project Alert. This will navigate to your TFS web access (something like http://tfs:8080/tfs/TFS/PROJECT/_Alerts).

Answer 3

You don't need it anymore, that functionality is now part of Team Foundation Server 2012 and 2013.

In TFS Web Access click on your Name (top-right) and go to My Alerts -> Custom Alerts -> Other