Changing service accounts in TFS 2010

I get this question a lot, usually from a “pilot” project that turns into more and needs to fall under enterprise configuration guidelines. 

About half the problems I see with installs / re-configurations end up relating back to the accounts not set up properly for the tiers so please check the install guide to make sure your service accounts have the correct rights before you do this next step. Changing the accounts in TFS 2010 is relatively simple and the instructions are located here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb552178.aspx

You can either use the GUI or the command line TFSConfig. Instructions for both are located at that MSDN link. I summarized the TFSConfig instructions here:

To use the TFSConfig utility to change the service account

1. On the application-tier server, open a Command Prompt window and change directories to the directory that contains the TFSConfig utility.

   By default, this utility is located in Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010\Tools.

2. At the command line, type:
   TFSConfig Accounts /change /accountType:ApplicationTier
   /account:AccountName /password:NewPassword, and then press ENTER.