The TFSWitDisplayNames tool for Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server is available

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server obtains display names from the Active Directory directory service by using the Group Security Service to synchronize user identities that are on the server. However, a user display name does not automatically update everywhere when the display name changes in Active Directory. The TFSWitDisplayNames tool is designed to help resolve these issues.

Note The TFS Users tool has replaced the TFSWitDisplayNames tool. The TFS Users tool is part of the July 2008 Team Foundation Server Power Tools package. The TFS Users tool works together with Team Foundation Server 2005 and Team Foundation Server 2008. To obtain the Team Foundation Server Power Tools package, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

When to use the tool

The TFSWitDisplayNames tool is designed to help Team Foundation Server administrators address the following issue:

• Display names are changed in Active Directory.
• The changes do not replicate correctly to Team Foundation Server.

For example, this issue occurs in the following scenarios:

• A company decides to change the display name for the whole enterprise in Active Directory. For example, the display name is changed from "FirstNameLastName" to "LastName, FirstName".
• An administrator changes the name of one user who marries.
• A user is deleted from the system. However, work items are still assigned to the user.

How display name changes are replicated

Typically, Team Foundation Server uses the Group Security Service to synchronize the Team Foundation Server identities cache with the identities that are in Active Directory. This synchronization process obtains the new display names. This user information spreads through the various Team Foundation Server systems. These include the Work Item Tracking (WIT) system. The WIT metadata store is updated. Therefore, when a Team Explorer client connects, new display names appear in the person field drop-down lists of the work item forms. For example, the new display names appear in the Assigned To field.

Scenarios in which display names are not updated

However, display names are not automatically updated in the following three scenarios.

Old display names still appear in work items

User data is not updated for the latest revisions of work items and for the historical revisions of work items. This behavior causes the following issues that may prevent users from editing work items:

• When a user views a work item, person fields such as the Assigned To field still display the old display name.
• Any stored queries that query on a person do not return expected results.
• In some work item types, fields may have rules that make the fields read-only unless the work item state is being changed. For example, the Resolved By field is only set or editable when the work item state changes from Active to Resolved. If the Resolved By field contains an invalid value that cannot be changed, this particular work item type cannot be edited in Team Explorer or in Microsoft Office Excel.
• Even if these issues do not occur, you may have to perform a bulk edit operation in Excel to fix the problem. If the server contains lots of users, lots of work items, and lots of projects, the edit process may take a long time to finish. Additionally, you cannot use this method to fix the Created By field or any historical data.

Work item subscriptions do not work

Subscriptions to work item change events contain a filter expression. This filter expression compares the Assigned To field of a work item with a display name. This display name is not automatically updated as part of a display name change. Therefore, a user must follow these steps to receive project e-mail notifications again if the display name of the user changes:

1. Manually unsubscribe from work item change events.
2. Manually resubscribe to work item change events

Reports that are filtered on person fields may contain old display name values

The Team Foundation Server reporting system recognizes values in known Agile Software Development person fields and in CMMI Process Improvement person fields as "person" values. The Team Foundation Server reporting system maps these values to security identifiers (SIDs). Therefore, these fields and any reports that are built on these fields are not updated when a display name changes in Active Directory. However, for any new custom person fields that contain person names, reports contain old display names. Additionally, these reports contain new display names when field values are updated.

Note A new custom person field is a field that contains person data that is not defined in the Agile Software Development templates or in the CMMI Process Improvement templates.

Using the TFSWitDisplayNames tool to resolve display name issues

The TFSWitDisplayNames tool can help resolve the following two issues:

• Old display names still appear in work items.
• Work item subscriptions do not work.

However, the TFSWitDisplayNames tool does not address a scenario in which reports that are filtered on person fields may contain old display name values. This problem is unlikely to occur.

The TFSWitDisplayNames tool bypasses rules that prevent users from being able to update work items that contain old display name data. Additionally, the tool enables the user to define the following rules:

• The fields that should be updated
• How display names are mapped from the old name to the new name

The tool performs bulk updates of current data and historical data for all affected work items.

You can also use the TFSWitDisplayNames tool to resolve an issue in which the following conditions are true:

• Rules on fields make the fields read-only unless the work item state is being changed.
• The work item has person fields that are assigned to a now-deleted user. Therefore, you cannot change this work item.

In this scenario, the TFSWitDisplayNames tool updates only the current state of the work items. The tool does not change the history for the work item. The tool creates a new revision of the work item for each field that is updated. This change preserves the actual history of the item.

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