How to use winget to install VSCode with custom options?

[Zamiell]

Hello friends. Thanks so much for winget. I have a quick question.

I know that I can install Visual Studio Code with winget by typing: winget install vscode

However, doing this will install Visual Studio Code with all default options, which is not what I want.

In the Visual Studio Code GUI installer, there is a screen that has a checkbox for adding Visual Studio Code to the right-click context menu, which is a very important feature:

These checkboxes are not checked by default. And winget does not seem to check them when it executes the installer.

Is there a way to pass custom installer arguments to winget? And if so, how would I even go about finding out what the correct installer arguments to pass even are?

[jedieaston]

You can use the --override argument on winget install to replace the arguments winget uses with ones you want yourself. Unfortunately, you'll probably have to do some googling or run the installer with /? to get all possible arguments.

To install VSCode with those options selected, run winget install Microsoft.VisualStudioCode --override '/SILENT /mergetasks="!runcode,addcontextmenufiles,addcontextmenufolders"'

[haltbarmilch]

Hello! Will the --override parameter be saved for an upgrade? Or must i pass the argument on every upgrade? Can't find any info on this. Thanks a lot.

[jedieaston]

It will not be saved, unfortunately, but on upgrade VSCode knows to keep the shortcuts in PATH. It should still work the way you'd expect.

[sanamhub]

The answer is No, Me neither didn't find the exact answer on the Internet btw, I come say the answer is No because I did tested on my System :)

[kellyelton]

What about those other options, what are the tasks for those?

[kellyelton]

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/blob/main/build/win32/code.iss#L76

[Tasks]
Name: "desktopicon"; Description: "{cm:CreateDesktopIcon}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:AdditionalIcons}"; Flags: unchecked
Name: "quicklaunchicon"; Description: "{cm:CreateQuickLaunchIcon}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:AdditionalIcons}"; Flags: unchecked; OnlyBelowVersion: 0,6.1
Name: "addcontextmenufiles"; Description: "{cm:AddContextMenuFiles,{#NameShort}}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:Other}"; Flags: unchecked
Name: "addcontextmenufolders"; Description: "{cm:AddContextMenuFolders,{#NameShort}}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:Other}"; Flags: unchecked; Check: not (IsWindows11OrLater and QualityIsInsiders)
Name: "associatewithfiles"; Description: "{cm:AssociateWithFiles,{#NameShort}}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:Other}"
Name: "addtopath"; Description: "{cm:AddToPath}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:Other}"
Name: "runcode"; Description: "{cm:RunAfter,{#NameShort}}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:Other}"; Check: WizardSilent

[Larandar]

So after some tinkering of everything in this thread, and some trial and error (might have needed to restart my computer 3 time and uninstall vscode 10 times) I found a "good" set of options that make vscode install silent in winget:

.\VSCodeUserSetup-x64-1.85.0.exe /VERYSILENT /SP- /MERGETAKS="!runcode,!desktopicon,addcontextmenufiles,addcontextmenufolders,associatewithfiles,addtopath"

• /VERYSILENT /SP- make it so no window is opened (unless you have a code instance opened already)
• The /CLOSEAPPLICATIONS and FORCECLOSEAPPLICATIONS do not work from what I tried, so you still get a popu asking you to quit vs-code
• /MERGETASKS=!runcode prevent vs-code to open after the install
• /MERGETASKS=!desktopicon do not add desktop icon (already present in the Win menu)
• /MERGETASKS=addcontextmenufiles,addcontextmenufolders,associatewithfiles,addtopath does all the background stuffs that are missing (weirdly Ninite use WinGet to install VS-Code addtopath but not the context menu for folder?)

This all make it into my dotfile bootstrap as:

Write-Host -ForegroundColor Yellow "🌋 Force reinstall of VS-Code to ensure Path and Shell integration"
winget install --force Microsoft.VisualStudioCode --override '/VERYSILENT /SP- /MERGETAKS="!runcode,!desktopicon,addcontextmenufiles,addcontextmenufolders,associatewithfiles,addtopath"'

[andregeuze]

MERGETAKS looks like a typo, why DOES it work though?

[neurocline]

I know many command-line parsers allow unique prefixes to work; maybe there's a bug where it sees the unique prefix and just stops parsing (e.g. it sees "/MER" and says "aha, that's /MERGETASKS".