Visual Studio Code on Windows
Installation
Download and install Visual Studio Code
NoteVS Code ships monthly releases and supportsauto-update when a new release is available.
Install Git, Node.js, TypeScript, language runtimes, and more.
Install VS Code extensions from the Visual Studio Marketplace
Customize VS Code with themes, formatters, language extensions and debuggers for your favorite languages, and more.
Set up AI-assisted coding with GitHub Copilot
TipIf you don't yet have a Copilot subscription, you can use Copilot for free by signing up for theCopilot Free plan and get a monthly limit of completions and chat interactions.
Get started with the VS Code tutorial
Discover the user interface and key features of VS Code.
Install VS Code on Windows
Use the Windows installer
Download theVisual Studio Code installer for Windows
Once it is downloaded, run the installer (VSCodeUserSetup-{version}.exe)
By default, VS Code is installed under
C:\Users\{Username}\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code.
Setup adds Visual Studio Code to your%PATH% environment variable, to let you type 'code .' in the console to open VS Code on that folder. You need to restart your console after the installation for the change to the%PATH% environmental variable to take effect.
Use the ZIP file
Download theVisual Studio Code Zip archive
Extract the Zip archive, and run VS Code from there
User setup versus system setup
VS Code provides both Windowsuser andsystem level setups.
| Setup Type | Description |
|---|---|
| User setup | Does not require administrator privileges to run, as the location is under your user Local AppData (LOCALAPPDATA) folder. Since it requires no elevation, the user setup is able to provide a smoother background update experience.This is the preferred way to install VS Code on Windows. Note: When running VS Code as Administrator in a user setup installation, updates are disabled. |
| System setup | Requires elevation to administrator privileges to run and places the installation under the system'sProgram Files. The in-product update flow also requires elevation, making it less streamlined than the user setup. On the other hand, installing VS Code using the system setup means that it is available to all users in the system. |
See theDownload Visual Studio Code page for a complete list of available installation options.
Updates
VS Code ships monthlyreleases and supports auto-update when a new release is available. If you're prompted by VS Code, accept the newest update and it will be installed (you won't need to do anything else to get the latest bits).
You candisable auto-update if you prefer to update VS Code on your own schedule.
Windows as a developer machine
Windows is a popular operating system and it can also be a great cross-platform development environment. This section describes cross-platform features such as theWindows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and the Windows Terminal.
Make sure you are on a recent Windows build. CheckSettings >Windows Update to see if you are up-to-date.
Windows Subsystem for Linux
With WSL, you can install and run Linux distributions on Windows to develop and test your source code on Linux, while still working locally on your Windows machine.
When coupled with theWSL extension, you get full VS Code editing and debugging support while running in the context of WSL.
See theDeveloping in WSL documentation to learn more, or try theWorking in WSL introductory tutorial.
Windows Terminal
TheWindows Terminal, available from the Microsoft Store, is a terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL. Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and custom themes, styles, and configurations.
Next steps
Once you have installed VS Code, these topics will help you learn more about it:
- VS Code tutorial - A quick hands-on tour of the key features of VS Code.
- Tips and Tricks - A collection of productivity tips for working with VS Code.
- AI-assisted coding - Learn about using GitHub Copilot in VS Code to help you write code faster.
Common questions
What command-line arguments are supported by the Windows Setup?
VS Code usesInno Setup to create its setup packagefor Windows. Thus, all theInno Setup command-line switches are available for use.
Additionally, you can prevent the Setup from launching VS Code after completion with/mergetasks=!runcode.
I'm having trouble with the installer
Try using thezip file instead of the installer. To use this, unzip VS Code in yourAppData\Local\Programs folder.
When VS Code is installed via a Zip file, you will need to manually update it for eachrelease.
Unable to run as admin when AppLocker is enabled
With the introduction of process sandboxing (discussed in thisblog post) running as administrator is currently unsupported when AppLocker is configured due to a limitation of the runtime sandbox.
If your work requires that you run VS Code from an elevated terminal:
In VS Code, run thePreferences: Configure Runtime Arguments command in the Command Palette (⇧⌘P (Windows, LinuxCtrl+Shift+P))
This command opens an
argv.jsonfile to configure runtime arguments for VS Code. You might see some default arguments there already.Add
"disable-chromium-sandbox": trueto theargv.jsonfile.Restart VS Code. You should now be able to run VS Code in an elevated terminal.
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Working with UNC paths
As of version1.78.1, VS Code on Windows only allows access to UNC paths (these begin with a leading\\) that were either approved by the user on startup or where the host name is configured to be allowed via thesecurity.allowedUNCHosts setting.
If you rely on using UNC paths in VS Code, you can either:
Configure the host to be allowed via thesecurity.allowedUNCHosts setting. For example, add
server-awhen you open a path such as\\server-a\path.Map the UNC path as a network drive, and use the drive letter instead of the UNC path.
Define a global environment variable
NODE_UNC_HOST_ALLOWLISTwith the backslash-separated list of host names to allow. For example,server-a\server-bto allow the hostsserver-aandserver-b.
If you are using any of the remote extensions to connect to a workspace remotely (such as SSH), thesecurity.allowedUNCHosts has to be configured on the remote machine and not the local machine.
This change was done to improve the security when using VS Code with UNC paths. Please refer to the associatedsecurity advisory for more information.