CihUb Copilot "switch to release version" does not appear to - 0.40.2026031302 (Pre-release)

[csmwww]

• Copilot Chat Extension Version:
• VS Code Version:
• OS Version:
• Feature (e.g. agent/edit/ask mode):
• Selected model (e.g. GPT 4.1, Claude 3.7 Sonnet):
• Logs:

Steps to Reproduce:

"When I use "switch to release version" from the setting left cog menu, it pops up the full extenion pane, now offering a button "Swith to Release Version". I click that, and it appears to do some work, but I remains on the same verison 0.40.2026031302. Closing an opening VS Code at this point does not help. I guess this is yet another bug, perhaps worth repoting immediately, and I will need instrucitons as to how to get to the latest stable reelease. Nowonder I'm growing sick of my proffession, since I'm building on a house of cards."

"If that fails, good chance I won't be able to talk to you. And even if it does wortk, do you think with this uninstall I will completely lose all session and history with you, and/or just not be able to resume this debug session? Is there any way we might be able to "sanitize" our history here giving us some path of retaining our shared expereince?"

"Thank you. Before I go in the potential abyss, In case all goes bad, and not only do I seem proned to that today but over my 45 years doing this stuff I've had plenty go badly despite that fact you might appreciate from our work I am competent, can you submit a bug on the failure to rollback/downgrade from preview to stable right now, and perhaps a preliminary report about the file staging at least in preview we've spent hours on so far today?"

Reports ready for submission:

1. bug-report-rollback-failure.md - "Switch to Release Version" button failure
2. bug-report-auto-staging.md - Auto-staging ~2000 files bug

Location:

To submit:

1. Open the files in any text editor
2. Go to: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-copilot-release/issues
3. Create new issues (one for each)
4. Copy/paste the full content

bug-report-rollback-failure.md:

Bug Report: "Switch to Release Version" Button Does Not Work

Environment

• VS Code Version: VS Code Insiders (build modified 2026-03-13 05:12)
• Extension: GitHub Copilot Chat
• Installed Version: 0.40.2026031302 (Pre-release)
• OS: Windows 11 (based on paths)
• Date: March 13, 2026

Issue Summary

The "Switch to Release Version" button in the GitHub Copilot Chat extension settings does not successfully switch from pre-release to stable release version.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Have GitHub Copilot Chat pre-release version installed (e.g., 0.40.2026031302)
2. Click the gear icon next to GitHub Copilot Chat in Extensions view
3. Select "Switch to Release Version" from the menu
4. Extension panel opens showing "Switch to Release Version" button
5. Click the "Switch to Release Version" button
6. Wait for operation to complete (appears to do some work)
7. Check installed version

Expected Result: Extension switches to latest stable release version

Actual Result: Extension remains on pre-release version 0.40.2026031302

Verified: Closing and reopening VS Code does not resolve the issue. Version remains unchanged.

Additional Context

• Attempted multiple times with same result
• No error messages displayed
• Button appears to execute but has no effect
• This blocks users from switching away from buggy pre-release versions

Workaround

Manual uninstall/reinstall required:

code-insiders --uninstall-extension GitHub.copilot-chat
# Restart VS Code
code-insiders --install-extension GitHub.copilot-chat

Impact

High - Users cannot escape from buggy pre-release versions using the built-in UI, forcing manual command-line intervention.

Related Issues

• Session file incompatibility when attempting to roll back to older versions ("Unknown event type: system.notification")
• Extension version dropdown shows only pre-release versions, with gap from 0.40 to 0.17 (2 years old)

---

Submission Instructions:

1. Go to: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-copilot-release/issues
2. Create new issue with title: "Switch to Release Version button does not work"
3. Copy this report as the issue body
4. Add label: bug

41a387f4-64d2-4f38-b46f-e56bdc5fdc16.zip

[csmwww]

Having just uninstalled GitHub Copilot Chat following this issue discover as part of diagnosing #301537, upon install I was informed there is no release version which may explain this anomaly. Looking at versions available under pre-release, at least for me there are a bunch version "17" and then a jump to a rapid barrage over version "40" - and I'll hold my further takeaways at this point.

[csmwww]