VS Code

Visual Studio Code releases continue to shape modern development workflows, with Microsoft shipping monthly updates that introduce features impacting millions of developers worldwide. This complete VS Code release history tracks every version from VS Code’s public launch, documenting feature additions, performance improvements, and breaking changes that matter to frontend developers, backend engineers, and DevOps teams. Whether you’re managing extension compatibility, planning IDE upgrades across your organization, or staying ahead of deprecated APIs, this timeline provides the version intelligence you need.

Since its 2015 debut, VS Code has evolved from a lightweight code editor into the dominant development environment across JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, and dozens of other languages. Each monthly release—numbered using semantic versioning (major.minor.patch)—brings new language server protocol improvements, debugger enhancements, and editor capabilities that directly affect your daily coding experience.

Stay Compatible with Extension Ecosystems
VS Code’s extension API evolves with each release. Tracking version changes helps you understand when proposed APIs become stable, when deprecated features will be removed, and how new capabilities affect your extension dependencies. Avoid runtime errors and compatibility breaks by knowing exactly what changed between your current version and the latest release.

Plan Enterprise Rollouts with Confidence
Organizations managing hundreds or thousands of developer workstations need advance notice of breaking changes. Our release guides identify when workspace settings change structure, when language server protocols update, or when new security policies affect corporate environments – giving IT teams the lead time needed for testing and gradual deployment.

Optimize Development Workflows
New VS Code releases frequently introduce productivity features that can eliminate entire categories of manual work: improved IntelliSense algorithms, faster search implementations, better Git integration, enhanced debugging tools. By tracking releases systematically, you discover workflow optimizations months before they appear in blog posts or tutorials.

Debug Version-Specific Issues
When a colleague reports “VS Code isn’t working,” knowing their exact version number and comparing it against release notes helps you diagnose whether they’ve hit a known bug, missed a critical patch, or need to downgrade temporarily. This release history serves as your diagnostic reference when troubleshooting editor behavior.

Extension Developers
Track proposed API graduations, understand when vscode.d.ts type definitions change, and plan extension updates around breaking changes. Our release guides highlight Extension API changes in dedicated sections so you can maintain compatibility across VS Code versions.

Development Team Leads
Make informed decisions about when to mandate IDE upgrades across your team. Understand which releases fix critical bugs affecting your language stack (Python, Go, Rust, etc.) versus which introduce experimental features that can wait.

DevOps Engineers
Automate VS Code deployments with confidence. Know which versions introduce new CLI flags, change settings.json schema, or affect remote development scenarios (SSH, containers, WSL2). Our guides document these infrastructure-relevant changes explicitly.

Technical Writers
Maintain accurate documentation that references specific VS Code versions. When writing tutorials or setup guides, cite exact version numbers and feature availability using our historical timeline as your source of truth.

Open Source Maintainers
Understand how VS Code’s language server protocol updates affect your LSP implementation. Track when new diagnostic capabilities, semantic token types, or code action kinds become available in stable releases.

How often does VS Code release new versions?
VS Code follows a monthly release cycle, with stable versions typically released during the first week of each month. Additionally, Microsoft ships daily Insiders builds for early testing of upcoming features. Each monthly stable release increments the minor version number (e.g., 1.85.0 → 1.86.0).

What’s the difference between Stable, Insiders, and Exploration builds?
Stable releases are production-ready versions updated monthly. Insiders builds are daily releases containing features scheduled for the next stable version, useful for testing but potentially unstable. Exploration builds are experimental branches testing architectural changes. This hub tracks Stable and major Insiders milestones.

Are older VS Code versions still available for download?
Yes. Microsoft maintains an archive of previous stable releases at https://code.visualstudio.com/updates. Specific version downloads are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Our release guide articles link directly to official download pages for each tracked version.

How do I know if I should upgrade to the latest VS Code release?
Check our release guide for the version you’re considering. We provide “Upgrade Recommendation” sections that flag whether a release contains critical security fixes (upgrade immediately), breaking changes (test first), or primarily minor improvements (safe to delay). High-priority releases are tagged accordingly.

Does VS Code support multiple versions installed simultaneously?
Yes, through portable mode or by installing Stable and Insiders side-by-side. This allows testing new versions without affecting your production environment. Our guides include instructions for managing multiple installations when version-specific testing is necessary.

What does “Extension API Finalization” mean in release notes?
VS Code introduces new extension capabilities as “proposed APIs” that can change based on feedback. When an API is “finalized,” it moves from proposed to stable, meaning extension developers can use it in production extensions without requiring special flags. Our guides track these API graduations explicitly.

Where does ReleaseRun get VS Code release data?
We aggregate data from the official VS Code GitHub releases (https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/releases), Microsoft’s update blog (https://code.visualstudio.com/updates), and extension API documentation. Each release guide cites original sources and links to official changelogs.

How detailed are ReleaseRun’s VS Code release guides?
Our guides average 1000 words and include: comprehensive “What Changed” analysis, feature breakdowns with use case examples, breaking change documentation, extension API updates, upgrade recommendations by user type, and troubleshooting notes for known issues. They’re designed for developers who need more context than raw changelog entries provide.

How ReleaseRun Complements Official Documentation
Microsoft’s release notes are comprehensive but optimized for users already familiar with VS Code’s architecture. ReleaseRun release guides translate technical changes into business impact: we explain why a new language server protocol version matters, who should prioritize an upgrade, and how specific changes affect real-world development workflows. Our guides serve as interpretive layer between raw changelogs and actionable developer intelligence.