TortoiseCVS does not work for me under Windows 7, what do I do?
Christopher Brooks, 31 Jan 2011
Last updated: 17 Jun 2011

Yep, it seems like TortoiseCVS has problems under Windows 7.

Google

TortoiseCVS Windows 7

The problem is with icon overlays. Installing TortoiseSVN will work on a Windows 7 machine, but if other software is installed that messes with the icons, then TortoiseCVS will mysteriously stop working. This is not very easy to diagnose or maintain.

TortoiseCVS is better than WinCVS if TortoiseCVS continues to work. If someone installs lots of software on their machine, then TortoiseCVS may stop working.

Blame Microsoft.

There are ways to work around this problem, but they are not for the faint of heart.

On 1/31/11, http://www.tortoisecvs.org/download.shtml said:

Vista and Windows 7 is also supported, although some people report problems with UAC.

UAC is User Account Control. I blame Microsoft, they changed their API. There are various fixes that can be tried, but you might try WinCVS or SmartCVS.

WinCVS

WinCVS can be downloaded via http://cvsgui.sourceforge.net/download.html

Install WinCVS, start it up, then click on Remote -> Checkout Module.

Typical settings: Module name: ptpapers/11
CVSROOT:ssh:cxh@source.eecs.berkeley.edu:/home/cvs_chess

SmartCVS

SmartCVS is commercial software that seemed to work for me. Apparently there is a free version. The default install has a 30 day license for the professional version that reverts to the free version. I'm not sure if this is a good thing.