How to update VS Code on Windows?

Question

I have VS Code version 1.37.1 and I want to update to the current available version 1.43. My OS is Windows 10.

How can I update the current version to the latest?. Like in Eclipse, check for updates is not updating the installation, rather it gives me a zip.

Diandre

hi there dear @Diandre - great question: a run vscode in Anaconda-;: how to update this - can i do. Should i do this via Conda!? – Ludhiana

Answer 1

Normally you don't need to do anything. The default configuration auto-updates and tells you it needs a restart.

If you experience different behaviour then either someone has interfered with settings in VS Code or the platform (Win/Lin/Osx) is misconfigured.

Type Ctrl+, or your platform equivalent and then filter for "update", then inspect your settings to see what may be mucked up. You can also force an update in the Help menu, and if this results in the download of a zip file it's not VS Code that's messed up, it's your platform.

Gaidano

hi there dear @Peter Wone - great question: a run vscode in Anaconda-;: how to update this - can i do. Should i do this via Conda!? – Ludhiana

Answer 2

Running this from the command prompt seemed to work for me: ( close all vscode windows first )

winget upgrade --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode

I think because I was running vscode as administrator I did not see the Help->Check for updates menu item.

Dorser

Running as admin was indeed the issue for me. Running without elevated privileges shows the Check For Updates option under Help. – Topical

I tried this. It did something (shown a load bar, then completed without error), but upon reopening VSCode the version was still the same. – Chromatism

this is the best option to update vscode, same i didn't saw check for updates because of admin privilege – Esparto

I ran this, and note that I had to close all the vs code windows before running this command – Varus

I ran this and a file was downloaded but it failed to install. If this is the case for you, then try navigating to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp and search for VSCodeSetup. You can then run this setup .exe file (note you may need to run this as admin depending on your setup). – Spelling

Answer 3

If Update:Mode in VS Code's setting is on 'none' , 'Check for Updates ...' option will disappear from Help. Just be sure it's not on 'none' then you can check for updates.

Predecessor

If I start VS Code as admin (required at my org), even when it's set to "manual," the option disappears from the help menu. – Bandwidth

Thank you! It was driving me crazy since all the instructions point to "check for updates" menu item and I just didn't have it. – Parlormaid

Answer 4

VS Code will automatically update itself on windows 10. If you'd like to force an update check there's an option available for that under 'Help > Check for Updates'.

If the update still doesn't complete, you can run the installer from here as described in the official Visual Studio Code Documentation under Docs » Supporting » Howtoupdate, found here.

Checkpoint

hi there dear @Checkpoint - great to read your answer and the explanation: i run vscode in Anaconda-;: how to update this - can i do. Should i do this via Conda!? – Ludhiana

Hey @zero, do you mean that you run anaconda in vscode and perhaps installed it using the Anaconda Navigator? If so are you asking how to update the version of Anaconda that you're using, or visual studio? If the former, please see the Anaconda documentation here, if the latter, the instructions above should still apply. – Checkpoint

hello dear Fehr - man many thanks for the reply - great to hear from you. I have installed VSCode 2 years ago - and afterwards i had installed Anaconda. So - lets say i have mixed some things up. - and now i try to apply the ideas of this thread. Many many thanks - i will do so as reported and come back and report all my findings. – Ludhiana

Missing for me in v1.52.1 win7 – Carlinecarling

In my org, everything is admin-by-request only. So when I'm working normally, I get the error that the upgrade failed. Then, if I run VS Code as admin, the option to check for updates is missing from the help menu! – Bandwidth

Answer 5

2021-12-15, if you don't see Check for Updates... then Settings

Make sure it's not none

Then Help, Check for updates..., it won't auto-install. Once it downloads the update, either Help, Install update, or

Bundle

Answer 6

My problem was that I had VS Code open as Administrator. After closing it and opening it normally I got the update to appear once again under the settings icon and in the Help menu.

If you cannot do that you can trigger the update with this command written in the terminal:

winget upgrade --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode

Rubberneck

I tried this. It did something (shown a load bar, then completed without error), but upon reopening VSCode the version was still the same. – Chromatism

If you have enough permissions you can delete vscode, download the latest, and install it. Just a thought. – Rubberneck

I simply re downloaded the installer and ran that, which works. Still, annoying for no reason. I thought I was on the latest given the supposedly automated updates, but I only noticed I was behind because my extensions started complaining. – Chromatism

Answer 7

If your update settings are OK, then there is one other possibility. Normally, you would have installed this huge piece of bloatware for your own user account only, using the "VSCodeUserSetup-.exe" installer.

But there is also a "system installer" which installs VSCode into "C:\Program Files" (configuration is still kept per-user). If you installed "VSCodeSetup-.exe" (note: no "User" in the installer file name), then you have an administrative install and will not get full auto-updates, AFAIK.

Rooky

Answer 8

Thank you Felix, downloading the System installer solved my issue. Now I can check for updates in VS Code as Windows 11 in Administrator mode.

https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/

My problem was that running VS Code with elevated permissions was not automatically updating and there was no option to Update in the Command Palette, Help, or System menus.

Auto-update was set to default in VS Code settings (tried them all) but I couldn't see updates 'until I reinstalling using System installer instead of User installer.

Any

Answer 9

My problem was with a later version, where update options did not appear under the Help menu. This may be because I ran a user install on a Win 2022 VM where I am Administrator user.

The above solutions did not work but I was able to resolve by running the latest user installer over the existing install (turns out the user install of VS Code does not appear in Control Panel, Uninstall program listing.) Currently this can be downloaded from https://code.visualstudio.com/.

Labrum

Answer 10

For VS Code Insiders, the following works.

winget upgrade --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode.Insiders

Creaky