VSCode fails to launch after 1.101.0 update

[lukar-msft]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

• VS Code Version: 1.101.0
• OS Version: 26100.4349

After updating to 1.101.0 from 1.100.3 on Windows 11 Multisession, build mentioned above, VSCode no longer launches for standard users. It launches fine for users in the administrators group. VSCode is installed machine wide as these are multi-session devices.

I have confirmed after we re-install version 1.100.3 we are no longer seeing this issue.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open VSCode via start menu shortcut, nothing happens
2. Run code.exe directly from powershell using & .\Code.exe --verbose --disable-extensions and we see the following errors:
   1. I have confirmed all files/folders in the errors exist and are writeable by the user running code.exe

PS C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code> & .\Code.exe --verbose --disable-extensions
PS C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code>
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.719Z] PolicyConfiguration#initialize
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.737Z] PolicyConfiguration#updatePolicyDefinitions [
  'update.mode',
  'update.channel',
  'update.enableWindowsBackgroundUpdates',
  'update.showReleaseNotes',
  'http.useLocalProxyConfiguration',
  'http.electronFetch',
  'http.proxy',
  'http.proxyStrictSSL',
  'http.proxyKerberosServicePrincipal',
  'http.noProxy',
  'http.proxyAuthorization',
  'http.proxySupport',
  'http.systemCertificates',
  'http.experimental.systemCertificatesV2',
  'http.fetchAdditionalSupport',
  'telemetry.telemetryLevel',
  'telemetry.feedback.enabled',
  'telemetry.enableTelemetry',
  'extensions.allowed'
]
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.740Z] NativePolicyService#_updatePolicyDefinitions - Found 4 policy definitions
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.751Z] [File Watcher (node.js)] Request to start watching: c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User (excludes: <none>, includes: <all>, filter: <none>, correlationId: <none>),c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json (excludes: <none>, includes: <all>, filter: <none>, correlationId: <none>)
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.754Z] [File Watcher (node.js)] ignoring a path for watching who's stat info failed to resolve: c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User (error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat 'c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User')
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.755Z] [File Watcher (node.js)] starting fs.watchFile() on c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User (correlationId: undefined)
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.755Z] [File Watcher (node.js)] ignoring a path for watching who's stat info failed to resolve: c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json (error: Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, stat 'c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json')
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.756Z] [File Watcher (node.js)] starting fs.watchFile() on c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json (correlationId: undefined)
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.783Z] NativePolicyService#_onDidPolicyChange - Updated policy values: {"UpdateMode":"none","AllowedExtensions":"{\n    \"bierner.github-markdown-preview\": true,\n    \"GitHub.vscode-pull-request-github\": true,\n    \"bierner.markdown-checkbox\": true,\n    \"bierner.markdown-emoji\": true,\n    \"bierner.markdown-footnotes\": true,\n    \"bierner.markdown-preview-github-styles\": true,\n    \"bierner.markdown-yaml-preamble\": true,\n    \"bierner.markdown-mermaid\": true,\n    \"ms-vscode.powershell\": true,\n    \"ms-vscode.azurecli\": true,\n    \"ms-ssdevteam.scope-vscode-ext\": true,\n    \"rosshamish.kuskus-extensions-pack\": true,\n    \"GitHub.copilot\": true,\n    \"GitHub.copilot-chat\": true\n}"}
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.785Z] PolicyConfiguration#update [
  'update.mode',
  'telemetry.telemetryLevel',
  'telemetry.feedback.enabled',
  'extensions.allowed'
]
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.803Z] PolicyConfiguration#changed [
  [ 'update.mode', 'none' ],
  [
    'extensions.allowed',
    {
      'bierner.github-markdown-preview': true,
      'GitHub.vscode-pull-request-github': true,
      'bierner.markdown-checkbox': true,
      'bierner.markdown-emoji': true,
      'bierner.markdown-footnotes': true,
      'bierner.markdown-preview-github-styles': true,
      'bierner.markdown-yaml-preamble': true,
      'bierner.markdown-mermaid': true,
      'ms-vscode.powershell': true,
      'ms-vscode.azurecli': true,
      'ms-ssdevteam.scope-vscode-ext': true,
      'rosshamish.kuskus-extensions-pack': true,
      'GitHub.copilot': true,
      'GitHub.copilot-chat': true
    }
  ]
]
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.807Z] PolicyConfiguration#updatePolicyDefinitions []
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:32.837Z] PolicyConfiguration#update []
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:33.021Z] Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, mkdir 'C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\CachedData\dfaf44141ea9deb3b4096f7cd6d24e00c147a4b1'
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:33.024Z] Lifecycle#kill()
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:33.039Z] Lifecycle#onWillShutdown.fire()
[main 2025-06-13T21:18:33.092Z] _t [Error]: Unable to write file 'c:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\globalStorage\storage.json' (EntryNotFound (FileSystemError): File to move/copy does not exist)
    at _u.writeFile (file:///C:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/main.js:147:6690)
    at async jy.s (file:///C:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/main.js:35:94787) {
  fileOperationResult: 1,
  options: { atomic: { postfix: '.vsctmp' } }
}

[ModestoIsidoro]

The same happened to me. I found that the executable file code.exe had changed its location from C:\Users{USER}\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\ to C:\Users{USER}\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code_.
Update the shortcut path, and it will open normally.

[lukar-msft]

We are not seeing the same behavior. This is on a machine-wide installation of Teams, so code.exe is in C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code. The errors appear to be when VSCode is attempting to read/write per user configurations in %APPDATA%.

It's particularly interesting that this runs fine for Administrators, but not for standard users on the same machines.

[timmhayes]

I'm seeing the same errors as @lukar-msft on a machine-wide installation, however it still fails to launch when I run C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe as administrator.

I got this working temporarily by downgrading to 1.100.3 using the system installer at https://update.code.visualstudio.com/1.100.3/win32-x64/stable. If you need the user installer, it can be found at https://update.code.visualstudio.com/1.100.3/win32-x64-user/stable

[lukar-msft]

@lramos15 Can you please triage this? We are stuck on 1.100.3 until this is resolved.

[vibs1983]

Hello,

We have the same issue on Windows 11 24H2 multisession. When you click Visual studio code it doesn't do anything, after downgrading it works.