Visual Studio Code ( VS Code )

Free. Open source. Runs everywhere.

Code focused development. Redefined.

Code, Build & Debug modern Web & Cloud applications.

VS Code combines the simplicity of a code editor with what developers need for the core code-build-debug cycle.

Code is Free and available on your favorite platform

Visual Studio Code on Windows
Windows
Visual Studio Code on Linux
Linux
Visual Studio Code for the web
Browser
Visual Studio Code on Mac
Mac
Visual Studio Code on raspberrypi
Raspberry Pi

It just opens in your browser or is very quick to install locally and packed full of features to allow you to work on your code anywhere. You can also use Extensions to add extra features.

VSCode for the Web is available at vscode.dev, github.dev or GitHub Codespaces.

The core editor is Monaco Editor packaged in the electron atom shell, formerly known as Atom Shell and made by GitHub.

The Monaco Editor is also widely used across Microsoft products like Visual Studio Team Services, TypeScript Playground, OneDrive, App Service Editor, IE11 F12 tools, plus many more places.

Microsoft evolution of VS Code began many years ago, todays product is one of the largest TypeScript code bases at more than 350k lines of TypeScript.

Both Monaco Editor & Visual Studio Code are Open Source available on GitHub.

The Integrated terminal is a great feature, really helpful.

Visual Studio Code 1.97 - Release

Yet again another excellent release by the VS Code team, packed with new features, now including:

Visual Studio Code logo
  • Next Edit Suggestions (preview) - Copilot predicts the next edit you are likely to make.
  • Reposition Command Palette - Drag the Command Palette and Quick Inputs to a new position.
  • Auto accept edits - Automatically accept edits from Copilot after a configurable timeout.
  • Extension publisher trust - Keep your environment secure with extension publisher trust.
  • Compound logs - Combine multiple logs into a single, aggregated log view.
  • Filter output logs - Filter the contents of the Output panel.
  • Git blame information - Rich git blame information and open on GitHub.
  • Search values in debug variables - Filter and search for specific values in debug variables.
  • Notebook inline values - View inline values for code cell variables in notebooks.
  • Python no-config debug - Quickly debug a Python script or module without setup.

VS Code now ships with TypeScript 5.7.3

You can also try the next TypeScript features today by installing the TypeScript Nightly extension.

Plus so much more, be sure to read the Release Notes, as there is always loads of great information within.

Documentation

Getting started with VS Code focusing on ways to make getting started with the editor easier.

A new "Learn to Code" landing page on the website with coding packs and new content geared towards folks who are new to coding.

Also new student-friendly videos and resources on the site at code.visualstudio.com/learn

TypeScript Editing and Refactoring in VS Code.

Remote Repositories Blog Post

New Remote Development resources - Check out the new video and Learn module.

New Beginner's Series to: Dev Containers, a set of eight videos that show you how to get, create, and configure a container-based development environment using VS Code Remote - Containers

Find out more at Visual Studio Code Update or Download.

Remote Development

A preview release of the Remote Development extensions has been released.

A new set of extensions that enable you to open any folder in a container, on a remote machine, or in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and take advantage of VS Code's full feature set.

These extensions let you work with VS Code over SSH on a remote machine or VM, in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), or inside a Docker container. You can read the Remote Development with Visual Studio Code blog post to learn more.

Visual Studio Codespaces - Create and connect to cloud-based development environments formerly Visual Studio Online.

The Visual Studio Codespaces preview, announced at Ignite 2019, allows you to create development environments in the cloud and connect to them with Visual Studio Code, a browser-based editor, or Visual Studio IDE.

Visual Studio Codespaces extension

You can learn more at Developing with Visual Studio Codespaces and get started creating and customizing a development environment with the Visual Studio Codespaces Quickstarts.

GitHub Codespaces

Codespaces are also available on GitHub. Take a read of the Codespaces feature page for more information on getting started with a full Visual Studio Code experience without leaving GitHub.

We have started to put together information and links on our Codespaces page.

Some of the key features from earlier releases are:

  • Overtype mode - Switch between overwrite or insert mode in the editor
  • Add imports on paste - Automatically add missing TS/JS imports when pasting code
  • Test coverage - Quickly filter which code is covered by a specific test
  • Move views - Easily move views between the Primary and Secondary Side Bar
  • Terminal ligatures - Use ligatures in the terminal
  • Extension allow list - Configure which extensions can be installed in your organization
  • Debug with Copilot - Use copilot-debug terminal command to start a debugging session
  • Chat context - Add symbols and folders as context Chat and Edits
  • Move from chat to Copilot Edits - Switch to Copilot Edits to apply code suggestions from Chat
  • Copilot Edits - Iterate quickly on large changes across multiple files
  • Copilot Chat in Secondary Side Bar - Keep Copilot Chat open and ready to-go while you work
  • Multiple GitHub accounts - Log in to multiple GitHub accounts in VS Code simultaneously
  • Copilot code reviews - Get a quick review pass or a deeper review of uncommitted changes
  • Docstrings with Pylance - Generate docstring templates for classes or methods
  • Preview settings indicator - View experimental and preview settings in the Settings editor
  • Copilot extensibility - Showcasing Copilot extensibility in VS Code
  • Find in Explorer - Quickly find files in the Explorer view with the improved Find control.
  • Source Control Graph - More filtering options and interactivity in the Source Control Graph.
  • Python test coverage - Run Python tests with coverage and get rich results in the editor.
  • ESM - Faster VS Code startup thanks to the migration to ESM.
  • Account preference - Specify which account to use for an extension.
  • Copilot in Native REPL - Get code completions and Inline Chat in the Native REPL.
  • Improved chat context - Drag & drop files or use IntelliSense for more relevant chat context.
  • Test environment setup - Get help with setting up a test framework for your workspace.
  • Profiles editor - Switch and manage your profiles from a single place.
  • Django unit test support - Discover and run Django unit tests from the Test Explorer.
  • IntelliSense on vscode.dev - Boost your JS & TS coding in vscode.dev with IntelliSense.
  • Notebook diff viewer - Efficiently review changes in notebooks by collapsing unchanged cells.
  • Resize columns via the keyboard - Resizing table columns in VS Code more accessible via keyboard.
  • Source Control Graph - Easily hide, collapse, or move the Source Control Graph.
  • GitHub Copilot - Add context in Quick Chat, improved test generation and chat history.
  • Experiment: Custom Copilot instructions - Define specific code-generation instructions for Copilot.
  • Default browser - Configure which browser to use for opening links in VS Code.
  • Revert PRs - Easily create a revert PR for a merged PR.
  • Extension updates - More easily configure auto updating of extensions.
  • Override profiles - Override an existing profile with the Profiles Editor.
  • Paste files in CSS - Quickly add CSS file references with paste or drag and drop.
  • Move Panel to top - Position the Panel section at the top of the workbench.
  • Copilot uses GPT-4o - GitHub Copilot Chat upgraded to OpenAI's GPT-4o.
  • Preview: Incoming/Outgoing changes graph - Visualize incoming and outgoing changes in the Source Control view.
  • Python environments - Enhanced environment discovery with python-environment-tools.
  • Smart Send in native REPL - Smoothly run code chunks in the native REPL.
  • GitHub Copilot extensibility - Chat and Language Model APIs available in VS Code Stable.
  • Preview: Profiles Editor - Manage your profiles in a single place.
  • Custom tab labels - More variable options and support for multiple extensions.
  • TypeScript 5.5 - Syntax checking for regular expressions and other language features.
  • JavaScript Debugger - Inspect shadowed variables while debugging JavaScript.
  • Editor tabs multi-select - Select and perform actions on multiple tabs simultaneously.
  • Profiles - Open new windows with your preferred profile.
  • Editor actions - Immediately access editor actions across editor groups.
  • Copilot extensibility - Build AI into your extensions with the Chat and Language Model API.
  • VS Code Speech - Automatically read out Copilot Chat responses with text-to-speech.
  • Find in notebooks - Restrict search to selected cells in notebooks.
  • Chat context - Quickly attach different types of context in chat.
  • IntelliSense in chat responses - Better understand generated code with IntelliSense.
  • Preview Markdown images & videos - Hover over a link to preview images & videos in Markdown.
  • Enhanced branch switching - Restore open editors seamlessly when switching between branches.
  • Middle-click paste support - Paste text quickly in the terminal using a mouse middle-click.
  • WSL over Remote - SSH - Use WSL when connected to a remote machine via Remote - SSH.

You can find earlier released key features on our key feature archive page.

VS Code also has some great documentation, some of the interesting topics covered are: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-recipes and Deploying Applications to Azure

Visual Studio Code Placement