Working with CodePlex on one of the projects I was faced with dilemma – download TFS explorer to get the latest source code from their TFS server, or…
I was about to give up and download/run a 300 TFS Explorer on my latest development VPC image (project required some beta MS tools; hence the VPC as a development platform, but that is story for some other time).  But then I noticed following text:

!! Warning !! - If you use the Team Explorer client then it will add source control binding information into your project files. When users download your source code and try to open it in Visual Studio they will get error messages because of the source control bindings. You can use any of the other available source control clients as an alternative.

So the Codeplex folks do not recommend using Team Explorer?!  Other options included several console tools, and one mentioned TortoiseSVN – which I am using anyways on a daily basis.  It appeared that you can use TortoiseSVN for any of your CodePlex source control operations, as long as you install and sun this SVN Bridge service on your local computer.

So I gave it a try - It is truly simple.  You download the executable from the Codeplex’s site, and run it – that creates a service that runs and can be seen in your windows trey. This service runs as a “fake” SVN server that runs on port 8081 by default and does nothing but translate SVN API calls to remote TFS.

You might wonder how does a call to the “local” SVN repository gets directed to correct CodePlex TFS server.  It is simple:
1)    You create a folder which will contain your project source from TFS.
2)    Right click on the folder in Win Explorer, and using SVN Checkout command of your Tortoise client, bring up the Checkout dialog.
3)    The format for your checkout URI is then:
http://localhost:8081/<CodePlex TFS Server domain>/<CodePlex Project Name>

And that is it.  I have tried a number of TortoiseSVN commands including “Repo-browser”.  Everything seems to work fine.  In the weeks and months ahead I will continue to use and evaluate this tool, but as it stands now, it was extremely easy to configure and use.  I highly recommend it.