Sometimes there is a much simpler solution to a problem than you originally thought. Or maybe sometimes you just like to do things the hard way (I’m sure most engineers have experience with this 😉 ). In any case, it’s good to know the simple solution, for when you really need it.

Last week I posted about bulk updating TFS work items using Powershell (original post). However, it turns out there is a really simple way to do bulk updates using the TFS Web UI. This can be very helpful when you want to update (one or multiple) field values for many work items at once. I didn’t know about it, so I thought I’d post it here.

Start by creating a query in the TFS Web UI. Here, I created a simple query that selects all Features.

Then, select the work items that you want to update. Use Ctrl+Click to select multiple items, use Shift+Click to select a range or just hit Ctrl+a to select them all. Then right-click and select “Edit selected work item(s)…”:

You’ll then be presented with a screen where you can select which fields to update and which value to update to. You can also put a comment which will be put in the history field of the selected work items:

Once you click “OK”, your items will be updated! If you have a lot of items to update you’ll have a nice “Please wait” screen to stare at… Generally, it won’t take very long though.

When finished, your work items will be updated. Don’t forget to click the “Save results” button to save your work items!

Note: Using this feature it is possible to set field values which are not allowed (e.g. for the “State” field). When you do this, you’ll notice that your work items will turn red, indicating that they’re not valid:

When you do try to save, you’ll be presented with an error message:

Happy updating!