diff --git a/containers/R/.devcontainer/Dockerfile b/containers/R/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
index 4134e082c6..0d5502de78 100644
--- a/containers/R/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
+++ b/containers/R/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
@@ -3,11 +3,20 @@
 # Licensed under the MIT License. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2090316 for license information.
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-FROM r-base:3.6.0
+FROM rocker/r-apt:bionic
 
-# Install git, process tools, lsb-release (common in install instructions for CLIs) and GPG
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install git procps lsb-release
+# Install git, process tools, lsb-release (common in install instructions for CLIs) and libzip for R Tools extension
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install git procps lsb-release libzip-dev
 
+# Register Microsoft key and feed
+RUN wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/18.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb && \
+    dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
+
+# Install the .NET Runtime
+RUN add-apt-repository universe && \
+    apt-get install apt-transport-https && \
+    apt-get update && \
+    apt-get -y install dotnet-runtime-2.1
 
 # Clean up
 RUN apt-get autoremove -y \
diff --git a/containers/R/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json b/containers/R/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
index 2d8b9d8194..cadf4b77e9 100644
--- a/containers/R/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
+++ b/containers/R/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 	"postCreateCommand": "R --version",
 
 	"extensions": [
-		"ikuyadeu.r"
+		"ikuyadeu.r",
+		"mikhail-arkhipov.r"
 	]
 }
\ No newline at end of file