Visual Studio Code on Windows https://code.visualstudio.

com/docs/setup/windows

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TOPICS Windows

IN THIS ARTICLE Installation

(https://vscode.dev/github/microsoft/vscode-docs/blob/main/docs/setup/windows.md)

Visual Studio Code on Windows

Installation

1 Download and install Visual Studio Code

Note
VS Code ships monthly releases and supports auto-update when a new release is available.

2 Install additional components (/docs/setup/additional-components)

Install Git, Node.js, TypeScript, language runtimes, and more.

3 Install VS Code extensions from the Visual Studio Marketplace (https://

marketplace.visualstudio.com/VSCode)

Customize VS Code with themes, formatters, language extensions and debuggers for your favorite
languages, and more.

4 Set up AI-assisted coding with GitHub Copilot (/docs/copilot/setup-simplified)

Tip
If you don't yet have a Copilot subscription, you can use Copilot for free by signing up for the
Copilot Free plan (https://github.com/github-copilot/signup) and get a monthly limit of
completions and chat interactions.

5 Get started with the VS Code tutorial (/docs/getstarted/getting-started)

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Discover the user interface and key features of VS Code.

Install VS Code on Windows

Use the Windows installer

1 Download the Visual Studio Code installer (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=534107) for

Windows

2 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 .

Tip
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

1 Download the Visual Studio Code Zip archive (/docs/?dv=winzip)

2 Extract the Zip archive, and run VS Code from there

User setup versus system setup

VS Code provides both Windows user and system level setups.

Setup Type Description

User setup (https:// Does not require administrator privileges to run, as the location is under
go.microsoft.com/fwlink/? your user Local AppData ( LOCALAPPDATA ) folder. Since it requires no
LinkID=534107) 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.

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Setup Type Description

System setup (https:// Requires elevation to administrator privileges to run and places the
go.microsoft.com/fwlink/? installation under the system's Program Files . The in-product update
linkid=852157) 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 the Download Visual Studio Code (/download) page for a complete list of available installation options.

Updates

VS Code ships monthly releases (/updates) 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).

Note
You can disable auto-update (/docs/supporting/faq#_how-do-i-opt-out-of-vs-code-autoupdates) 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 the Windows Subsystem for Linux
(https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/wsl/install) (WSL) and the Windows Terminal.

Note
Make sure you are on a recent Windows build. Check Settings > 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 the WSL (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-

remote.remote-wsl) extension, you get full VS Code editing and debugging support while running in the
context of WSL.

See the Developing in WSL (/docs/remote/wsl) documentation to learn more, or try the Working in WSL (/
docs/remote/wsl-tutorial) introductory tutorial.

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Windows Terminal
The Windows Terminal (https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701), 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 (/docs/getstarted/getting-started) - A quick hands-on tour of the key features of

VS Code.
• Tips and Tricks (/docs/getstarted/tips-and-tricks) - A collection of productivity tips for working with
VS Code.
• AI-assisted coding (/docs/copilot/overview) - 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 uses Inno Setup (https://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php) to create its setup package for Windows.
Thus, all the Inno Setup command-line switches (https://www.jrsoftware.org/ishelp/index.php?
topic=setupcmdline) 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 the zip file (/docs/?dv=winzip) instead of the installer. To use this, unzip VS Code in your
AppData\Local\Programs folder.

Note
When VS Code is installed via a Zip file, you will need to manually update it for each release (/
updates).

Unable to run as admin when AppLocker is enabled

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With the introduction of process sandboxing (discussed in this blog post (https://code.visualstudio.com/
blogs/2022/11/28/vscode-sandbox)) 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:

1 In VS Code, run the Preferences: Configure Runtime Arguments command in the Command
Palette ( ⇧⌘P )

This command opens an argv.json file to configure runtime arguments for VS Code. You might
see some default arguments there already.

2 Add "disable-chromium-sandbox": true to the argv.json file.

3 Restart VS Code. You should now be able to run VS Code in an elevated terminal.

Subscribe to issue #122951 (https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/122951) to receive updates.

Working with UNC paths

As of version 1.78.1 , 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 the ! (vscode://settings/security.allowedUNCHosts)security.allowedUNCHosts setting.

If you rely on using UNC paths in VS Code, you can either:

• Configure the host to be allowed via the

! (vscode://settings/security.allowedUNCHosts)security.allowedUNCHosts setting. For example,
add server-a when you open a path such as \\server-a\path .

• Map the UNC path as a network drive (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/map-a-

network-drive-in-windows-29ce55d1-34e3-a7e2-4801-131475f9557d), and use the drive letter
instead of the UNC path.

• Define a global environment variable NODE_UNC_HOST_ALLOWLIST with the backslash-separated list

of host names to allow. For example, server-a\server-b to allow the hosts server-a and
server-b .

Note
If you are using any of the remote extensions to connect to a workspace remotely (such as SSH), the
! (vscode://settings/security.allowedUNCHosts)security.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
associated security advisory (https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/security/advisories/GHSA-
mmfh-4pv3-39hr) for more information.

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