Issue with “Recent Items” in the taskbar context menu

[li-cr]

Bug Report: Portable Mode Does Not Update Windows Taskbar Recent Items

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?
Yes

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Environment

• VS Code Version: 1.114.0
• Commit: e7fb5e9
• Date: 2026-04-01
• OS: Windows 10 x64 (10.0.19045)

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Description

When running VS Code in portable mode (i.e., a data folder exists in the VS Code directory), opening folders does not update the Windows taskbar “Recent” list (right-click on the VS Code icon).

However, when running VS Code in normal (non-portable) mode, recently opened folders are correctly shown in the Windows taskbar jump list.

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Steps to Reproduce

Case 1: Portable Mode (Issue occurs)

1. Create a data folder inside the VS Code installation directory (portable mode enabled)
2. Launch VS Code
3. Open any folder

Result:
The opened folder does not appear in the Windows taskbar "Recent" list.

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Case 2: Normal Mode (Expected behavior)

1. Remove the data folder (disable portable mode)
2. Launch VS Code
3. Open any folder

Result:
The opened folder appears correctly in the Windows taskbar "Recent" list.

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Expected Behavior

Recently opened folders should appear in the Windows taskbar jump list regardless of portable mode.

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Actual Behavior

In portable mode, recently opened folders are not added to the Windows taskbar recent items.

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Additional Notes

• This issue occurs even with all extensions disabled.
• It seems related to how VS Code integrates with Windows shell APIs in portable mode.
• Possibly related to how recent items are stored or registered when using a custom data directory.

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Screenshots

(Attached in original report)

[LiarCoder]

Hey dude, I have been puzzled by this problem for a while, too! I spent serval hours to find out, but failed 😂. And I updated vscode to the latest version.

Version: 1.115.0
Commit: 41dd792b5e652393e7787322889ed5fdc58bd75b
Date: 2026-04-07T22:04:57Z
Electron: 39.8.5
ElectronBuildId: 13703022
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19044

[LiarCoder]

@bpasero

Additional information to reproduce the issue stablely:

I download the latest version of portable vscode（v1.115.0）, and extract the .zip without creating data folder at the root directory of code.exe.

Then, I open a folder named test-project with vscode, at this moment, when you hover the vscode icon at the taskbar, you'll see the test-project at the Recent Folders list.

In the meanwhile, I notice that a new folder was created at C:\Users\${username}\AppData\Roaming\Code, and you can see all the files which were generated by vscode.

I shutdown the vscode, and delete C:\Users\${username}\AppData\Roaming\Code folder, and create a folder named data in the same directory as code.exe, and I open the test-project folder with vscode again, and I check the Recent Folder list of vscode at taskbar, this time, there is nothing there.

I do hope these clues can make sense, and thank you for your repair work in advance. ♥

[bpasero]

As far as I know, portable disables the recent entries in the taskbar.

[LiarCoder]

As far as I know, portable disables the recent entries in the taskbar.

That's sad. But why? I do remember that it used to work well before. 🤔

[bpasero]

No, it was never enabled:

vscode/src/vs/platform/workspaces/electron-main/workspacesHistoryMainService.ts

Lines 108 to 113 in b81fc85

	// Add to recent documents (Windows only, macOS later)
	// Skip in portable mode to avoid leaving traces on the machine
	// Skip in the sessions app to avoid polluting the jump list
	if (isWindows && recent.fileUri.scheme === Schemas.file && !this.environmentMainService.isPortable && !(process as INodeProcess).isEmbeddedApp) {
	app.addRecentDocument(recent.fileUri.fsPath);
	}

[LiarCoder]

No, it was never enabled:

Alright, codes never cheat 👍.

Maybe I used to install vscode by installer ,and then I switch to portable mode, and the "Recent Items" data was left at that moment.

Anyway, thank you for your clarification~

I finally decide to give up continuing to use portable mode and switch to installer for several other issues.😂

Such as:

1. vscode suddenly launch itself automatically from time to time.

2. the code command doesn't work normally on CMD terminal.
   a. when I run code -v, it opens a new window and prints some werid messages instead of printing the version info

        ```cmd
           > code -v
   
             [main 2026-04-11T14:39:08.174Z] update#setState idle
            [main 2026-04-11T14:39:12.934Z] Extension host with pid 27736 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
        ````
   

3. the vscode://xxx schema doesn't work

The installed version works well so far.