[#TFS] Why my Visual Studio goes so slow? It may be because the workspace is in LOCAL mode

Hello!

Now it’s nostalgic moment and time for a bit of history with Team Foundation Version Control. Since the release of TFS2012 we have the possibility to create workspaces in two modes: local and server. Local mode, is a kind of “workaround” which allows us to work comfortably offline.

Obviously you don’t have as much power as a Git repo, however is very useful if your Team Project uses TFVC. Now, the inner workings of a local Worspace relies on a Windows process that verifies the changes that exist in a directory.

The problem usually occurs when these directories contain several thousands of files and the size is closer to 1GB. At that time, Visual Studio begins to “become a very slow app“. Simple actions such as adding or refreshing a NuGet package, may take several minutes.

In reality, this is because the local workspaces were not designed to work with “many files”, the workspaces in server mode are recommended for this 2nd scenario.

Note: here we have a loophole where is hard to know if”many files may be 1 or 500 or 500000 or…”

Luckily, the solution is simple. In the edition of your workspace, you change it locally to server mode.

You’ll see how they disappear hidden files $tf and in addition your Visual Studio comes to life.

At this point also worth rethinking other options such as

-I really need a unique mapping on the root of my Source Control, or I can create mappings for only the folders that I use?

-It should be put into mode cloack some folders?

I think that with this, I know already 4 that I have made them the d to.

References:

-Far reach the local workspaces? (link)

Saludos @ La Finca

El Bruno

Google