VSCode Update Code

[fbarjoncollignon-dev]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes/No

• VS Code Version : 1.108.0 (User Installer)
• OS Version : Windows 11 25H2 (build 26200.7462, 64 bit)

Steps to Reproduce :

1. Start Visual Studio Code normally.
2. Trigger an update (either automatic update or manual update).
3. VS Code closes itself in order to restart after the update.
4. VS Code does not restart.

Expected Result :
VS Code should restart correctly after the update or safely roll back to the previous working version.

Actual Result :

• VS Code cannot be reopened.
• Clicking the VS Code icon shows a short loading indication, but no window appears.
• After approximately 5–10 seconds, an error message appears : "failed to update code.exe".
• If only the VS Code cache is deleted, VS Code shows a white window for a fraction of a second and then closes.
• VS Code remains unusable.

Workaround :

• A full uninstall of VS Code is required.
• All remaining VS Code folders must be manually deleted:
  %APPDATA%\Code and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Microsoft VS Code
• After a clean reinstall, VS Code works normally again.

Additional Notes:
The update process seems to leave VS Code in a corrupted state when the restart after update fails.
This problem happened to me on 10/01/2026.

[asmarkis]

This also started happening to me this week. Tried to clear the files, didn't work. So I ended up reinstalling it completely.

Now it tries to update and gives me an error:
An error occurred while tring to replace the existing file: DeleteFile failed; code 5. Access is denied.

Which is odd, because it did not ever have this issue before and even giving more permissions to general users doesn't seem to make a difference.

So I just clicked Try Again, that didn't work until I closed the setup process in the background leaving just the installer. This gave the message that the install failed possibly due to an A/V (of which I only have Windows Defender). But then I was able to run it again and it claimed no updates. /shrug

[pilgi3]

Same on me today.
My colleagues says that happens very often at the user. I cannot understand how difficult for MICROSOFT do built in a reliable update in the user setup ... . Disappointing ...

[dmitrivMS]

@asmarkis @pilgi3 Would appreciate more info on this - did you have A/V running or did you receive any messages about processes blocking the files?