Visual Studio Code is a really popular editor that is really fast, support many extensions and it is also free. It is my choice for everything that doesn’t require a more complex IDE. Installation is a breeze.
Navigate to visualstudio.microsoft.com and download Visual Studio Code. I like to use the “More option”…
Then select System Installer. This option can install in the traditional directories that are conventionally for applications, such as C:\Program Files.
Open the setup file and allow for the installer to make changes to your device. Then make sure you read and agree with the License Agreement before you continue by clicking in “I accept the agreement” and click in next.
In the next screen, type or browse the desired installation location and click in next.
Select your preference with regards to the creation of a start menu folder and click next.
My preference in the next screen is to select all options but the desktop icon creation. Choose yours and lick next.
In the next window click in install.
Wait for the installation to complete.
Then click in Finish.
Once Visual Studio Code launches, it gives some initial tips on how to configure it. I will do it manually so I will choose Mark Done for now.
With installation done, it is time to work on enabling and configuring the extensions. To install new extensions, we need to click in the blocks icon on the left ribbon, search for the extension and click in install.
Below are the extensions I use the most, not in any order…
- Docker Extension
This extension has details on Containers, Images, Registries and more.
- Kubernetes
When we click in the icon, it will request to add components necessary for maintaining deployments to Kubernetes, such as Helm to handle Helm Charts. I suggest allow to install the dependencies.
The local cluster, docker-desktop is auto discovered.
- C/C++
- Go
- YAML
- Prettier
After installation of prettier, to get auto-formatting of code on saving we need to go to menu File, then Preferences, and Settings.
Expand Text Editor, then Formatting. Now select Format On Past and Format on Save. Then save [Crtl + S] and close the tab.
- Azure Tools
- Azure Terraform
- HashiCorp Terraform
- WSL
- PowerShell
After installation of the PowerShell extension, I like to use the theme PowerShell ISE as well. To activate press Ctrl + Shift + P. When the command bar opens, type theme and select Preferences: Color Theme.
Navigate with your keyboard arrows and the color profile will temporarily change. If you like the color scheme, then hit Enter.
It is a light theme that I really like it.
- Live Share
- Remote SSH
- CMake Tools
- Hex Editor
- Visual Studio Keymap
- Azure Kubernetes
- Serial Monitor
- Word Count
- Intellicode Completions
- Thunder Client
I have used Postman for long time, but since I have discovered Thunder Client I have been using more and more this built-in option for testing APIs directly on Visual Studio Code, with the help of this great extension.
- Github Pull Request and Issues
After the extensions the last two things I like to do are connect to cloud account to sync the settings and disable telemetry.
For the first, the account link, we need to click in the cog icon and then Turn on Settings Sync…
Then click in Sign in & Turn on.
In my case I usually sign in with Github.
If you are already logged in on GitHub.com the site will try to redirect to the app with the proper credentials. Click Open.
Then, back in Visual Studio Code, click Open to accept the redirection from GitHub.com.
If settings locally are different from the ones already in the cloud, a conflict resolution decision is requested to the user. In my case I will Replace Remote.
Now that sync is working fine, I usually disable the telemetry by going into settings again. The other option to get there is to use the Cog on the left ribbon menu, then Settings.
For telemetry level I use off in my settings and I also disable telemetry in individual extensions.
In case I find an issue to report or a suggestion I would then go reach out the maintainer directly. I just like this approach better.
Now, Visual Studio is installed and configured, it is time to spend some time coding…
Fernando Silva 