Searching for checked-out files in VSS and TFS

The latest Microsoft product for source code control is called Team Foundation Server (TFS). It is the successor of Visual Source Safe (VSS). I have had an opportunity to work with both of them. A common issue with source control is that often times a developer forgets to check-in a file. When the nightly build runs, it fails because of the missing check-in. In order to prevent that from occurring, I have become accustomed to perform search for all checked-out files by me. The results would show me if I have any outstanding checked-out file.
Visual Source Safe
VSS has a nice feature that allows a user to search an entire branch recursively for files filtered by their status and a user. When I want to find out what files are checked-out by me, I click View->Search and select to search all files checked-out by the specific user and enter my user name. The user name is an optional parameter. The command may be used to find all checked-out files by any user. The search results display the user name next to the checked-out file. It may be worth mentioning that this is treated as a View. Which means that if you move the selection to another branch, the files displayed will be only the ones that satisfy the search criteria. This is usually not an issue, unless you define some criteria just before leaving work and then come back the following day not remembering that you defined a new View. You will be wondering where all the files have disappeared overnight.
Team Foundation Server
When I started working with TFS, I was initially disappointed to find out that the search functionality has been removed. There was no option that allows a user to search for files by status and user name in a specific branch. It turns out that Microsoft decided to make this functionality part of the add-on TFS Power Tools. The add-on provides several nice features along with the search that is nicely integrated with Team Explorer. In order to search for files by status, a user would right click on the branch and then select Find in Source Control


Clicking on the Status option would open up following dialog:

Conclusion
Being able to search for files by their status and a user names seems to me a basic functionality that any good source control should implement. I do not understand Microsoft’s decision to remove that feature from TFS. Luckily, TFS Power Tools come to rescue. Maybe in the future versions they will import the functionality from TFS Power Tools into TFS.

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