Visual Studio Code Insiders not Launching (Fatal Issue)

[CanePlayz]

Hardware / System Information

Affected machine: PC

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3070
• GPU driver version: 596.49

2nd affected machine: Surface

• Device: Surface Pro, 11th Edition
• CPU: Snapdragon X1E80100

Software

• VS Code Version: 1.122.0-insider
• Commit: 9845410
• OS Version: Windows 11 Build 29595.1000

Installer

• Download source: https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders#
• SHA256: d71cbf7a83a57a75e2c82cad02bb095cf2ada21bc6fb8c23662004e2ca51ae3d

Summary

VS Code Insiders does not open any UI on launch. The process starts and prints early startup logs when launched from PowerShell, but no window appears. Stable VS Code works on the same machine.

The issue also reproduces with extensions disabled and with a clean user data directory. Empty session log folders are created under the VS Code Insiders log directory, but no log files are written there. No related crash/error entry was found in Windows Event Viewer.

Crashpad does generate a dump. WinDbg analysis shows an access violation in dxgi.dll, specifically around DXGI output duplication / Direct2D bitmap cleanup.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install the latest VS Code Insiders.
2. Launch VS Code Insiders normally, or from PowerShell:

& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Microsoft VS Code Insiders\Code - Insiders.exe" --verbose --log trace

3. Observe that no VS Code window appears.
4. Try launching with extensions disabled and a clean user data directory:

& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Microsoft VS Code Insiders\Code - Insiders.exe" `
  --disable-extensions `
  --user-data-dir "$env:TEMP\vscode-clean" `
  --verbose `
  --log trace

5. Observe that no VS Code window appears.
6. Check Crashpad reports under:

%APPDATA%\Code - Insiders\Crashpad\reports

Actual Result

No VS Code Insiders UI appears. Launching from PowerShell prints only early startup output and then no visible window is created.

Example terminal output:

PS C:\Users\jjpfs> & "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Microsoft VS Code Insiders\Code - Insiders.exe" --verbose --log trace --version
PS C:\Users\jjpfs>
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.835Z] PolicyConfiguration#initialize
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.837Z] PolicyConfiguration#updatePolicyDefinitions [
  'update.mode',
  'update.channel',
  'update.enableWindowsBackgroundUpdates',
  'update.showReleaseNotes',
  'update.showPostInstallInfo',
  'update.titleBar',
  'http.useLocalProxyConfiguration',
  'http.electronFetch',
  'http.proxy',
  'http.proxyStrictSSL',
  'http.proxyKerberosServicePrincipal',
  'http.noProxy',
  'http.proxyAuthorization',
  'http.proxySupport',
  'http.systemCertificates',
  'http.systemCertificatesNode',
  'http.experimental.systemCertificatesV2',
  'http.fetchAdditionalSupport',
  'http.webSocketAdditionalSupport',
  'http.experimental.networkInterfaceCheckInterval',
  'telemetry.telemetryLevel',
  'telemetry.feedback.enabled',
  'telemetry.enableTelemetry',
  'extensions.allowed'
]
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.839Z] NativePolicyService#_updatePolicyDefinitions - Found 4 policy definitions
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.846Z] [File Watcher (node.js)] Request to start watching: c:\Users\jjpfs\AppData\Roaming\Code - Insiders\User (excludes: <none>, includes: <all>, filter: <none>, correlationId: <none>),c:\Users\jjpfs\AppData\Roaming\Code - Insiders\User\settings.json (excludes: <none>, includes: <all>, filter: <none>, correlationId: <none>)
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.855Z] Creating watcher for productName VSCodeInsiders
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.855Z] NativePolicyService#_onDidPolicyChange - Updated policy values: {}
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.856Z] PolicyConfiguration#update [
  'update.mode',
  'telemetry.telemetryLevel',
  'telemetry.feedback.enabled',
  'extensions.allowed'
]
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.856Z] PolicyConfiguration#updatePolicyDefinitions []
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.856Z] PolicyConfiguration#update []
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.865Z] [File Watcher (node.js)] Started watching: 'c:\Users\jjpfs\AppData\Roaming\Code - Insiders\User'
[main 2026-05-22T23:10:10.866Z] [File Watcher (node.js)] Started watching: 'c:\Users\jjpfs\AppData\Roaming\Code - Insiders\User\settings.json'

Expected Result

VS Code Insiders should open a window, or at least fail with a useful error message/log entry.

Things Tried

The issue still reproduces with:

--disable-extensions
--user-data-dir "$env:TEMP\vscode-clean"
--disable-gpu
--disable-chromium-sandbox
--new-window
--verbose
--log trace

Logs

VS Code Insiders creates timestamped log folders under:

%APPDATA%\Code - Insiders\logs

However, the folders are empty / contain no useful logs after the failed launch.

No related entry was found in Windows Event Viewer.

Crashpad / WinDbg Analysis

A Crashpad dump is created under:

%APPDATA%\Code - Insiders\Crashpad\reports

I opened the dump in WinDbg and ran:

!analyze -v

Relevant output:

PROCESS_NAME:  Code - Insiders.exe

Failure.Bucket:
INVALID_POINTER_READ_c0000005_dxgi.dll!ATL::CComPtrBase_ID2D1Bitmap1_::_CComPtrBase_ID2D1Bitmap1_

Failure.Exception.Code: 0xc0000005
Failure.Exception.IP.Module: dxgi
Failure.ProblemClass.Primary: INVALID_POINTER_READ

IMAGE_NAME: dxgi.dll
MODULE_NAME: dxgi

EXCEPTION_RECORD:
ExceptionAddress: dxgi!ATL::CComPtrBase<ID2D1Bitmap1>::~CComPtrBase<ID2D1Bitmap1>+0xf
ExceptionCode: c0000005 (Access violation)
Attempt to read from address 00007ffd2be4d1c0

STACK_TEXT:
dxgi!ATL::CComPtrBase<ID2D1Bitmap1>::~CComPtrBase<ID2D1Bitmap1>+0xf
dxgi!CDXGIOutputDuplicationTonemapper::~CDXGIOutputDuplicationTonemapper+0x21
dxgi!std::default_delete<CDXGIOutputDuplicationTonemapper>::operator()+0x15
dxgi!std::unique_ptr<CDXGIOutputDuplicationTonemapper,...>::~unique_ptr+0x11
dxgi!CDXGIOutputDuplication::~CDXGIOutputDuplication+0x15
dxgi!ATL::CComObject<CDXGIOutputDuplication>::Release+0x6b
Code___Insiders!...

Full Crashpad dump can be found here:

558b610e-fd4a-4bc0-a1ba-276383214fda.zip

[psdarr]

I can reproduce the same startup crash on VS Code Insiders 1.122.0, builds "98454106993b96052992d1ece449759e4e1aceb2",
and "859cf8dc73cc68c65bc2c6c66022f50da8e353d1".
It works fine on a build "7d7e9513af36a565ce41d60e18972bbc5cad14a2".
WinDbg dump analysis points to the same DXGI path.

[CanePlayz]

This issue has now made it into stable...

[CanePlayz]

Seems to have been fixed in the 122.1 hot patch. Currently, no Insider builds seem to be published...

[ATGardner]

it seems to be working right now.
i used winget uninstall --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode.Insiders --all-versions
then winget install --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode.Insiders
i get version 7d7e9513af (like last week). it auto-updated to version da03e4ef04, and when i clicked on the update button, it closed and re-opened successfully, finally. i hope that bug is behind us. thanks.

[psdarr]

I can also confirm that, as of insider versions 1.123 and 1.124, the issue doesn't reproduce.

[deepak1556]

Crash dump points to #318697