Visual Studio Code FAQ

Our docs contain a Common Questions section as needed for specific topics. We've captured items here that don't fit in the other topics.

If you don't see an answer to your question here, check our previously reported issues and our Updates notes.

What is the difference between VS Code and VS Community?

Visual Studio Code is a streamlined code editor with support for development operations like debugging, task running and version control. It aims to provide just the tools a developer needs for a quick code-build-debug cycle and leaves more complex workflows to fuller featured IDEs. For more details about the goals of VS Code, see Why VS Code.

Which OS's are supported?

VS Code runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows. See Requirements for the supported versions. You can find more platform specific details under SETUP.

Is VS Code free?

Yes, VS Code is free for private or commercial use.

I would like to report an issue with an VS Code extension

For bugs, feature requests or to contact an extension author, you should use the links available in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. However, if there is an issue where an extension does not follow our code of conduct, for example it includes profanity, pornography or presents a risk to the user, then we have an email alias where you can contact us to report the issue. Once the mail is received, our Marketplace team will look into an appropriate course of action, up to and including unpublishing the extension.

How do I find what version of VS Code I am using?

You can find the VS Code version information in the About dialog box.

On a Mac, go to Code > About Visual Studio Code.

On Windows and Linux, go to Help > About.

The VS Code version is the first Version number listed and has the version format 'major.minor.release', for example '1.6.0'.

How do I opt out of VS Code auto-updates?

By default, VS Code is set up to auto-update for Mac and Windows users when we release new updates. If you do not want to get automatic updates, you can set the update.channel setting from default to none.

To modify the update channel, go to File > Preferences > Settings and add the update.channel setting with the value "none".

    "update.channel": "none"

You can install a previous release of VS Code by uninstalling your current version and then installing the download provided at the top of a specific release page under Updates.

Note: On Linux: If the VS Code repository was installed corrected then your system package manager should handle auto-updating in the same way as other packages on the system. See Installing VS Code on Linux.

Licensing

Location

You can find the VS Code licenses, third party notices and Chromium Open Source credit list under your VS Code installation location resources\app folder. VS Code's ThirdPartyNotices.txt, Chromium's Credits_*.html, and VS Code's English language LICENSE.txt are available under resources\app. Localized versions of LICENSE.txt by Language ID are under resources\app\licenses.

Why does Visual Studio Code have a different license than the vscode GitHub repository?

To learn why Visual Studio Code, the product, has a different license than vscode, the open source GitHub repository, see issue #60 for a detailed explanation.

How can I test prerelease versions of VS Code?

Want an early peek at new VS Code features? You can try prerelease versions of VS Code by installing the "Insiders" build. The Insiders build installs side by side to your stable VS Code install and has isolated settings, configurations and extensions. The Insiders build is updated nightly so you'll get the latest bug fixes and feature updates from the day before.

To install the Insiders build, go to the Insiders download page.

VS Code gets unresponsive right after opening a folder

When you open a folder, VS Code will search for typical project files to offer you additional tooling (e.g. the solution picker in the status bar to open a solution). If you open a folder with lots of files, the search can take a large amount of time and CPU resources during which VS Code might be slow to respond. We plan to improve this in the future but for now you can exclude folders from the explorer via settings and they will not be searched for project files:

    "files.exclude": {
        "**/largeFolder": true
    }

Missing csharp-o extension?

If you get an error at startup about a missing csharp-o extension, you can fix it by completely deleting its directory from the installation directory:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\extensions\csharp-o

VS Code main window is blank?

The Electron shell used by Visual Studio Code has trouble with some GPU (graphics processing unit) hardware acceleration. If VS Code is displaying a blank (empty) main window, you can try disabling GPU acceleration when launching VS Code by adding the Electron --disable-gpu command line switch.

code --disable-gpu

Installation appears to be corrupt

VS Code does a background check to detect if the installation has been changed on disk. This is done since some extensions directly modify (patch) the VS Code product in such a way that is semi-permanent (until the next update) and this can cause hard to reproduce issues. We are not trying to block VS Code patching, but we want to raise awareness that patching VS Code means you are running an unsupported version. Reinstalling VS Code will replace the modified files and silence the warning.

How to disable crash reporting

From File > Preferences > Settings, add the following option to disable crash reporting:

    "telemetry.enableCrashReporter": false

Important Notice: This option requires a restart of VS Code to take effect.

How to disable telemetry reporting

VS Code collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft to help improve our products and services. Read our privacy statement to learn more.

If you don’t wish to send usage data to Microsoft, you can set the telemetry.enableTelemetry setting to false.

From File > Preferences > Settings, add the following option to disable telemetry reporting, this will silence all telemetry events from the VS Code shell.

    "telemetry.enableTelemetry": false

Important Notice: This option requires a restart of VS Code to take effect. Individual extensions and packages may send additional telemetry and not respect this setting.

Note: VS Code gives you the option to install Microsoft and third party extensions. These extensions may be collecting their own usage data and are not controlled by the telemetry.enableTelemetry setting. Consult the specific extension’s documentation to learn about its telemetry reporting.

Technical Support

You can ask questions and search for answers on Stack Overflow and enter issues and feature requests directly in our GitHub repository.

If you'd like to contact a professional support engineer, you can open a ticket with the Microsoft assisted support team.