| Visual Studio Code | |
|---|---|
 Logo used since May 2019 | |
.png) Visual Studio Code starting screen with dark theme | |
| Original author | Erich Gamma |
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Initial release | April 29, 2015; 10 years ago (2015-04-29) |
| Stable release | |
| Preview release | |
| Written in | C++,TypeScript,JavaScript,HTML,CSS[3] |
| Operating system | Windows 10 or later,macOS 10.15 or later,Linux |
| Platform | x86-64,ARM32,ARM64 |
| Size |
|
| Available in | 15 languages |
List of languages English (US), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Czech[4] | |
| Type | Integrated development environment |
| License | Proprietaryfreeware[5][6] based onopen-source project[7][8] |
| Website | code |
| Repository | |
Visual Studio Code (commonly referred to asVS Code)[9] is anintegrated development environment developed byMicrosoft forWindows,Linux,macOS andweb browsers.[10][11] Features include support fordebugging,syntax highlighting,intelligent code completion,snippets,code refactoring, and embeddedversion control withGit. Users can change thetheme,keyboard shortcuts and preferences, as well as installextensions that add functionality, including to extend its capabilities to function as an IDE for other languages.
Visual Studio Code isproprietary software released under the "Microsoft Software License",[6] but based on theMIT licensed program named "Visual Studio Code – Open Source" (also known as "Code – OSS"), also created by Microsoft and available throughGitHub.[12]
In the 2025Stack Overflow Developer Survey, out of over 49,000 responses, 75.9% of respondents reported using Visual Studio Code, more than twice the percentage of respondents who reported using its nearest alternative,Visual Studio.[13]
Visual Studio Code was first announced on April 29, 2015, by Microsoft at the 2015Build conference. Apreview build was released shortly thereafter.[14]
On November 18, 2015, the project "Visual Studio Code – Open Source" (also known as "Code – OSS"), on which Visual Studio Code is based, was released under theopen-sourceMIT License and made available onGitHub.[12]
Extension support was also announced.[15] On April 14, 2016, Visual Studio Code graduated from thepublic preview stage and wasreleased to the web.[16]
Visual Studio Code includes a source-code editor that can be used with a variety of programming languages, includingC,C#,C++,Fortran,Go,Java,JavaScript,Node.js,Python,Rust, andJulia.[17][18][19][20][21] Visual Studio Code employs the same editor component (codenamed "Monaco") used inAzure DevOps (formerly called "Visual Studio Online" and "Visual Studio Team Services").[22]
The downloadable version of Visual Studio Code is built on theElectron framework,[23] which is used to developNode.jsweb applications that run on theBlink layout engine. Visual Studio Code for the Web is a browser-based version of the editor that can be used to edit both local files and remote repositories (onGitHub andMicrosoft Azure) without installing the full program.[24] It is officially supported and hosted by Microsoft and can be accessed atvscode
Out of the box, Visual Studio Code includes basic support for most common programming languages. This basic support includessyntax highlighting,bracket matching,code folding, and configurable snippets. Visual Studio Code also ships withIntelliSense for JavaScript, TypeScript,JSON,CSS, andHTML, as well as debugging support for Node.js. Support for additional languages can be provided by freely available extensions on the VS Code Marketplace.[25]
VS Code features a built-indebugger designed to enhance the development process. It provides native support for debuggingNode.js applications, while additional debuggers for other programming languages can be installed via extensions. The debugger allowsdevelopers to attach to running processes and step through source code line-by-line during execution, offering a detailed view of program flow. It can also displaydisassembly for low-level analysis inC++.[26] Furthermore, users can setbreakpoints – either standard or conditional – to pause execution at specific points and examine the program's state, while also monitoring variable values in real-time as the code runs.
An interactive feature of VS Code's debugging toolkit is the Debug Console.[27] This panel is integrated directly into the debugging session, enabling users to evaluate expressions, such as checking variable values or testingfunctions, and executecommands on the fly. This functionality provides developers with greater control and deeper insight into the program's behavior.
Instead of a project system, VS Code allows users to open one or moredirectories, which can then be saved in workspaces for future reuse. This allows it to operate as alanguage-agnostic code editor for any language. It supports many programming languages and a set of features that differ per language. Unwanted files and folders can be excluded from the project tree via settings.
Many Visual Studio Code features are not exposed through menus or the user interface but can be accessed via the Command Palette.[28] The Command Palette is able to execute virtually every feature the graphical interface supports, making it very keyboard-accessible.[29]
Visual Studio Code provides a fully featuredintegratedterminal that opens at the root of the current workspace, allowing users to runshell commands without leaving the editor environment.[30] It can be toggled viaView → Terminal, theCommand Palette (View: Toggle Integrated Terminal), or the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+'). Users may open multiple terminals in tabs or split panes, rename them, and kill sessions individually, directly within the editor UI.
This terminal hosts any shell installed on the system—Bash,Zsh,PowerShell,Fish,Git Bash,WSL, etc.—and detects available profiles automatically, making it simple to switch contexts via the dropdown menu or theTerminal: Select Default Profile command.[31]
Beyond basic command execution, VS Code's shell integration also contains clickable filelinks,working directory awareness, anderror-detection markers in thescrollbar. These enhancements simplify tracing errors and navigating code paths by allowing direct jumps to source files, preserving the current working directory context, and highlighting problems inline within the terminal's scroll bar.
Visual Studio Code can be extended viaextensions.[32] Users may install extensions from the VS Code Marketplace to add language support,[28] editor,[33] themes, debuggers, and additional utilities. A notable feature is the ability to create extensions that add support for newlanguages,themes,debuggers,time travel debuggers, performstatic code analysis, and addcode linters using theLanguage Server Protocol.[34]
Source control is a built-in feature of Visual Studio Code. It has a dedicated tab inside the menu bar where users can access version control settings and view changes made to the current project. To use the feature, Visual Studio Code must be linked to any supported version control system (Git,Apache Subversion,Perforce, etc.). This allows users to create repositories and to make push andpull requests directly from the Visual Studio Code program.
Visual Studio Codecollects usage data and sends it to Microsoft to help improve the product. This telemetry feature can be disabled.[35] The information contained in this telemetry data can be inspected by the public, since the product is open source.[36]
VS Code supports remote development through extensions such as Remote–SSH, Remote–Containers, and Remote–WSL. These tools enable users to connect to and develop within remote environments, including servers and containers.
Visual Studio Code for the Web (accessible at vscode.dev) allows users to edit files directly in a web browser without the need to install the desktop application.[37] This version supports basic editing tasks and integration with remote repositories.
VS Code Insiders is anightly build version of this code editor, providing users with the opportunity to experience new features, bug fixes, and improvements ahead of their official release. It is compiled every night based on the latest changes from the development team, allowing users to test and provide feedback before these updates are officially released in the stable version.[38]
This version is completely independent of the standard version, meaning users can install and run both simultaneously without any interference between their settings, extensions, or themes. This design enables developers to explore and experiment with the latest features of the code editor without affecting their primary development environment.
In the 2016Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Visual Studio Code ranked 13th among the top popular development tools, with only 7% of the 47,000 respondents using it.[39] Two years later, Visual Studio Code rose to the no. 1 spot, with 35% of the 75,000 respondents using it.[40] Since then Visual Studio Code has retained the no. 1 spot, with the percentage of respondents reporting using it increasing to 50% in 2019,[41] 74.5% in 2021,[42] 74.48% in 2022,[43] 73.71% in 2023,[44] 73.6% in 2024,[45] and 75.9% in 2025.[46] (The 2020 Developers Survey did not coverintegrated development environments.[47])
We wanted to deliver a Microsoft branded product, built on top of an open source code base that the community could explore and contribute to.
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.
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