TFS 2010 Branch Deletion

A specific user requested branching permissions for TFS yesterday, but it took me a little while to find exactly where those specific permission settings were (I am doing this through Visual Studio; specifically VS 2012 because I prefer it, but the options should be similar in VS 2010).

As it turns out, you'll have to:

• Open the Source Control Explorer, find the folder that needs branching
• Right-click the folder and find the security option
• Add the user to the list here and ensure they have the Merge & Manage Branch options selected
• (they should have inherited other permissions if they're part of the contributer group for the project already; if not, select those permissions that contributors are given by default as well).

Afterwards, the user created a branch they did not intend to and needed to delete it, but found that the "delete" option in the right-click menu was greyed out. Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean the user does not have permission to delete it. To delete a branch:

• Right-click the branch, select "Get Latest Version" and select a local folder to place it
• Right-click the branch, select "Delete"; notice it is marked for deletion after this
• Right-click again and select "Check In Pending Changes" and complete the steps for check-in

It should disappear from the source explorer now!

I know, this seems remedial, but it took a while to figure out, so I can't be the only one.

Ryan