VSSConverter GUI
[Update: The sources for VSSConverterGui are now available on CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=VssConverterGui ]
If you’re going to migrate your SourceSafe repository to Team System, you’ll eventually meet VSSConverter. VSSConverter is a command line utility that uses xml configuration files to transfer SourceSafe projects to TFS. If you don’t like command line utilities then you’ve come to the right place. I’ve written a GUI frontend to VSSConverter that is called..well.. VSSConverterGui 
.
To use the tool, you should get familiar with the VSSConverter docs. I also suggest reading the following: Step by Step: Migration process from VSS to Team Foundation.
If you found this useful or (more likely) found some bugs, drop me a line in the comments section.
Download: VssConverterGui.zip
Note: Extract and place in the same location as VssConverter.exe
[Update: Added the features requested by Dave Novak (items 1 & 2). Fixed the bugs found by Doug Rohrer. Thanks guys!]
Some screen shots: Main screen:
Analyze log:
Migration log:
40 Responses to “VSSConverter GUI”
Rob Caron
April 6th, 2006
When I initially went to run the utility, a System.IO.FileNotFound exception occurred and the application crashed. I guessed that it occurred as I ran the tool off my client PC. I then copied the tool across to my server and tried to run it, and the same exception occurred. I then put the utility in the same directory as the VSSConverter.exe and this time it function correctly.
Some more information about the tool’s prerequisites would be nice. Ideally I would like to run the tool from my desktop without needing to run it from the TFS server.
Any chance of making it open source, or setting up click once deployment?
Cheers and thanks for the great tool. This will certainly save me quite a bit of time.
Andrew Buttigieg
April 6th, 2006
This is definitely a step in the right direction and I plan to use it. I was quite surprised when I discovered last week that the Microsoft conversion tools were all command-line based.
That said, I have a few [minor] suggestions on how to make this tool even better:
1. Change VSS Database field to be a combo box and populate with values from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Sourcesafe\Databases.
2. Change TFS Server field to be a combo box and populate with values from HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\TeamFoundation\Servers.
3. The SQL Server field could look at this same registry key.
4. Publish your source code so that other individuals can customize it for their own purposes.
Again, I’m very glad that someone had the foresight and discipline to write a GUI interface for these conversion tools. Much appreciated.
Dave Novak
April 6th, 2006
VSSConverter GUI…
…
Lorenzo Barbieri @ UGIblogs!
April 6th, 2006
Thanks for making VSSConverter.exe a lot easier to user. I have a few bug reports for you:
1) If you have spaces in the path to your config file, the application fails to run the Analyze (and I assume Migrate) because the path to the settings.xml file is invalid.
2) Mapping User names, TFS expects the AD user names to be in DOMAIN\USERNAME format, not the more friendly “Last, First” format that ends up in the user mapping file.
Doug Rohrer
June 7th, 2006
This is sweet! Thank you for creating it and sharing it with everyone!
p.s. would it be possible to make source available?
Jeff Atwood
October 25th, 2006
The app throws an error when the admin password is blank
Peter Del Giudice
November 29th, 2006
You should have added that it won’t work without VSS2005 installed… It throws a FileNotFoundException that complains that it can not found Microsoft.VisualStudio.SourceControl.Interop.dll
Knaģis
January 9th, 2007
I’m using your tool and it is excellent!
Walter
January 12th, 2007
There appears to be a bug in the regular expression matcher that validates user-mapping input. If there is a hyphen in the domain name that you intend to map a user from, the regex does not match, and returns “WinNT://domain/user” instead of “\\domain\user”.
Casey Averill
February 12th, 2007
i’m facing a problem when i open VSS GUI Converter,i got this error meesage :
“n unhandled exception of type ‘System.IO.FileNotFoundException’ occurred in VssConverterGui.exe
Additional information: Could not load file or assembly ‘VSSConverter, Version=8.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
”
Is the release on the codeplex is the latest one ?
this is the download link :
http://www.codeplex.com/VssConverterGui
mostafa
May 7th, 2007
with this awesome tool, can I use it to analze and migrate individual projects?
Michele Wynot
May 17th, 2007
Brilliant. Just migrated my first project using the GUI tool and it worked wonderfully.
Thank you.
Tim.
Tim
June 8th, 2007
I am using VSSConverterGui for migration from VSS to TFS. Can any one help me with the following error during the migration process ?
ERROR: The item [path] /projectxx1.cpp could not be found in your workspace ? Thanks.
Ching
August 9th, 2007
I tried running the executable from C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE nothing shows up. What is the issue?
sriman
September 24th, 2007
As with the previous post from Sriman . I also put the utility in the same directory as the VSSConverter.exe. The path to the directory is “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE”
I tried running the executable from C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE nothing shows up. Ran the debugger and receive the following error:
“An unhandeled exception of type “System.IO.FileNotFoundException” occured in VSSGUI.exe”
If possible, can you provide anu assistance?
Thanks,
-Nick
N
Nick
December 4th, 2007
Great stuff once you’ve worked out what to install where – remember you need VSS2005 installed on the machine – alongside VS2005 – also need to have opened all your VSS and TFS sessions on the machine by the user going to migrate. Remeber that TFS loses shared file histories so only move projects within TFS NOT in VSS if you are rearranging file/project structure – otherwise you WILL lose your history. Had an issue on an XP box (showing incorrectly that my local VSS was not 6.0)but works fine on 2003 server with the same install of VSS.
Having said all this – still disappointed in TFS source control anyway!!!!!
Thanks for the Gui tho!
Sid
January 9th, 2008
Hello,
I have only VS 2008, and when I try to start the VSSConverterGui.exe, it’s crashes. How can I use your tool in this case?
Alexandro lucciola
April 25th, 2008
Thanks for this tool. We might want to use it for our VSS migration.
dabu
May 6th, 2008
I’m receiving this error while running through analyze or migrate utility… :
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE>VSSConverter Migrate ConversionSettings.xml
Microsoft (R) Visual SourceSafe Converter version 9.0.0.0 for Microsoft (R) Visual Studio Team System 2008
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
TF60032: The VSS Converter requires Visual SourceSafe 2005 or later to run. Please install Visual SourceSafe 2005 or later and try again.
Kindly provide me solution asap.
SJ
July 29th, 2008
Thanks a lot for the tool. It worked and saved us a lot of efforts.
Sameer Dhoot
August 13th, 2008
In vista not working
aynka2000
August 27th, 2008
While running the VSSConverterGUI.exe,I am getting error like “VssConverterGui has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”
Simi
November 17th, 2008
Your site is a much needed addition to my life. THANK YOU!
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November 27th, 2008
HI I am using TFS 2008 and want to migrate a project in VSS 2005. when i place the VSSConverterGUI.exe in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE and try to run, it gives an error system.io.fileloadexception. Please let me know the solution for this. remedy for this would be greatly appreciated.
suresh babu
March 26th, 2009
Encountered alot of problems using this tool. Good thing we have the code base to draw from.
1) Doesn’t work with 2010! You will need to recompile the app using a new version of the VssConvertor tool and using framework 3.5 or higher
2) Watch out for x64 bit oses. You will need to compile with the target as x86 and NOT Any CPU.
3) The language of Source Safe and Team Explorer need to be the same because of the format of dates.
Mind you even with these problems, this is a kick ass tool. Imagine having to solve these problems from the command line 😉
kurtnelle
July 23rd, 2009
Hey Dear I used this utility in TFS
2005. It was working very fine there. Now I move
in TFS 2008. Now I want to migrate all
VSS DB’s in TFS2008. When I try to migrate
VSS DB it is giving me an error ” TF60022: Unable to connect to Microsoft SQL Server. ” . Please let me know how can I resolve this issue in
this migration.
waseem alvi
October 5th, 2009
i am trying to use VSSConverter GUI under windows 2008 server but the application crashed.
did someone test it with with 2008 server ?
thx
Anonymous
November 10th, 2009
i am trying to use VSSConverter GUI under windows 2008 server but the application crashed.
did someone test it with with 2008 server ?
thx
PS:i post it again just to add my e-mail in case someone would answer me
wissem
November 11th, 2009
I’m using TFS2008 with the Visual Studio 9.0 version of vssconverter.exe. vssconvertergui.exe crashes when I attempt to start it. Any ideas how to get it to work ?
Anthony Maw
November 18th, 2009
Hey,
Im also using TFS2008 and visual stuido 2008 (a.k.a 9.0), but i also have visual studio 2005 installed.
Have tried to launch this app from both Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE
and
Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE
But as previous posters stated, i get the system.io.fileloadexception error.
Any updates on this issue?
Padraig Gurnett
December 4th, 2009
Just to update on my last post.
I managed to get the tool working.
I had to install vss2005 (i had vss6 installed) and run it from
Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE (not the vs2008 folder)
Just like to comment on what a fantastic tool this is, and thank you for sharing it!!.
Padraig Gurnett
December 4th, 2009
I have VSS 2005 installed on my machine……Using VSS converter GUI
tool for TFs 2008.VSS Converter is of version 9.0.0.0.
Successfully connected toto VSS DB VSS DB.But while migrating
one of the projects.Getting below error.
TF60008: The VSS database version is older than 6.0. The VSS
converter only supports database versions 6.0 or above. Please
upgrade the database version and try again.
How to upgrade VSS DB???Can you explian more with DDUPD Utility???
Mayur
October 27th, 2010
VSSConverter GUI…
I got e-mail from Eyal Post of EPocalipse Software today that he has built a GUI front-end for the VSSConverter……