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 Mac, Linux, and Windows. See Requirements for the supported versions.

Is VS Code free?

Yes, VS Code is a free, open source editor.

How big is VS Code?

VS Code is a small download (< 100 MB) and has a disk footprint of less than 200 MB, so you can quickly install VS Code and try it out.

How do I update to the latest version?

See how to update. You’ll find downloads for Linux (32-bit and 64-bit) and OS X, and both an installer and download for Windows.

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

By default, VS Code is set up to auto-update for OS X and Windows users when we release new updates. (Auto-update of VS Code is not supported for Linux.) If you do not want to get automatic updates, you can set the update.channel setting from the default stable to none.

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

  1.     "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.

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 get 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 will automatically update when we release new builds, towards the end of each month or whenever there is new functionality we’d like to get into the hands of developers early.

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

Windows FAQ

Trouble with the installer

Try using the zip file instead of the installer. To use this, unzip VS Code in your Program Files folder.

Note: When VS Code is installed via a Zip you will need to manually update it for each release.

Icons are missing

I installed Visual Studio Code on my Windows 7 or 8 machine. Why are some icons not appearing in the workbench and editor?

VS Code uses SVG icons and we have found instances where the .SVG file extension is associated with something other than image/svg+xml. We’re considering options to fix it, but for now here’s a workaround:

Using the Command Prompt:

  1. Open an Administrator Command Prompt.
  2. Type REG ADD HKCR\.svg /f /v "Content Type" /t REG_SZ /d image/svg+xml.

Using the Registry Editor:

  1. Start regedit.
  2. Open the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT key.
  3. Find the .svg key.
  4. Set its Content Type Data value to image/svg+xml.
  5. Exit regedit.

Windows 7 - Error when deleting files from Explorer

19 Dec 2015 | version 0.10.5

When deleting a file from the VS Code Explorer on Windows 7 using the 0.10.5 release, you may receive an error “Failed to move ‘filename‘ to the trash” which prompts you to “Delete Permanently”, “Retry”, or “Cancel”.

By default, VS Code attempts to move the file to the Trash (Windows Recycle Bin). In the 0.10.5 release, there is an issue 3656 with the Electron Shell preventing this from working correctly.

You can choose to delete the file permanently or delete the file using the Windows Explorer or Command Prompt, which will properly move the file to the Windows Recycle Bin.

OS X FAQ

VS Code fails to start OmniSharp

On OS X, VS Code can no longer start OmniSharp after updating VS Code.

To fix this issue, run these commands to update mono:

  1. brew update
  2. brew reinstall mono

Mono and El Capitan

Mono stopped working in Visual Studio Code after I installed OS X 10.11 El Capitan Public Beta. What do I do?

Run these commands:

  1. brew update
  2. brew reinstall mono

Linux FAQ

Azure VM Issues

I’m getting a “Running without the SUID sandbox” error?

Unfortunately, this is a known issue that we’re still investigating.

Debian and Moving Files to Trash

If you see an error when deleting files from the VS Code Explorer on the Debian operating system, it might be because the trash implementation that VS Code is using is not there.

Run these commands to solve this issue:

  1. sudo apt-get install gvfs-bin

error ENOSPC

When you see this error, it indicates that the VS Code file watcher is running out of handles. The current limit can be viewed by running:

  1. cat /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches

The limit can be increased to its maximum by editing /etc/sysctl.conf and adding this line to the end of the file:

  1. fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288

The new value can then be loaded in by running sudo sysctl -p. Note that Arch Linux works a little differently, view this page for advice.

While 524288 is the maximum number of files that can be watched, if you’re in an environment that is particularly memory constrained, you may wish to lower the number. Each file watch takes up 540 bytes (32-bit) or ~1kB (64-bit), so assuming that all 524288 watches are consumed that results in an upperbound of around 256MB (32-bit) or 512MB (64-bit).

I can’t see Chinese characters in Ubuntu

We’re working on a fix. In the meantime, open the application menu, then choose File > Preferences > User Settings. Then set editor.fontFamily as shown:

  1.     "editor.fontFamily": "Droid Sans Mono, Droid Sans Fallback"

Proxy Server Support

If you work on a machine where Internet traffic needs to go through a proxy server, then configure the proxy server in one of the following ways:

  • Set the operating system environment variables ‘http.proxy’ and ‘https.proxy’
  1.     SET http_proxy=http://10.203.0.1:5187/
  • Configure the ‘http.proxy’ setting in your user settings (File > Preferences > User Settings)
  1.     "http.proxy": "http://10.203.0.1:5187/"

Additionally, use "http.proxyStrictSSL": false if your proxy server uses a self-signed certificate.

Note: VS Code supports http and https proxies, but not SOCKS proxies.

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:

  1.     "files.exclude": {
  2.         "**/largeFolder": true
  3.     }

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:

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

How to disable crash reporting

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

  1.     "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 > User Settings, add the following option to disable telemetry reporting:

  1.     "telemetry.enableTelemetry": false

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, provide suggestions on UserVoice, and enter issues 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.