How to: Identify Version Control Item Status in Solution Explorer

When a solution or project is added to version control using Solution Explorer, or when version controlled items are otherwise bound to Visual Studio (see How to: Bind and Unbind Projects and Solutions), version controlled items are integrated with Solution Explorer. This integration is reflected by the addition of version control status icons which appear to the left of the items in the solution and some additional shortcut menu items specific to version control. The version control status icons that identify version control item status are explained in the following table:

Icon	Status	Description
None	Blank	Represents an item whose Team Foundation version control state is unknown.
	Checked in	Represents an item that is under Team Foundation version control and has no pending changes against it.
	Checked out	Represents an item for which the current user has a pending change in their current workspace, and the item is not exclusively locked.
	Orphaned	Represents an item that has been orphaned because of a dependency break.
	Editable	Represents an item that is writable.
	Read-only	Represents an item that is not writable.
	Disabled	Represents an item that should have been added to Team Foundation version control because the item is a child of a version controlled solution or project but could not be added.
	Checked out exclusive	Represents an item for which the current user has pending changes in their current workspace, and the item is exclusively locked by the current user.
	Checked out shared other	Represents an item that the current user does not have checked out in their current workspace, but the item does have a pending change in another workspace (owned by either this user or another user).
	Checked out exclusive other	Represents an item that the current user does not have checked out in his or her current workspace, but the item does have a pending change in another workspace (owned by either this user or another user) and is exclusively locked there.
	Excluded from version control	Represents an item that is not under Team Foundation version control because the user has explicitly excluded the item from version control.
	Pending addition	Represents an item that is not currently on the version control server, but is being added to version control by the current user (has a pending change of add).
	Synchronously opened	Represents an item that belongs to a project that Visual Studio is opening asynchronously.

These icons can be used to determine pending changes as demonstrated in the following procedure.

Required Permissions

To create a workspace, you must have the Create a workspace permission set to Allow. To add a file, you must have the Check out permission set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

1. Create a workspace. For more information, see How to: Create a Workspace.

2. Add a solution or project to version control and note the blue padlocks to the left of the Solution Explorer items to indicate that the items are checked in. For more information about adding a solution or project, see How to: Add a Project or Solution to Version Control.

3. Modify one of the files and notice that the version control status icon changes to a red check mark. This indicates that the file or item is checked out to you.

4. Right-click the solution, click Add. Then click New Item.

5. In the Add New Item dialog box, click Text File, type test.txt in the Name text box, and then click Add.

6. Notice that the test.txt file is added to Solution Explorer and a pending addition control status icon appears next to the new file.

Understanding Version Control with Solution Explorer

How to: Add a Project or Solution to Version Control

How to: Bind and Unbind Projects and Solutions