Unable to prevent automatic update

[lyambailey]

Type: Bug

A recent update (1.99.1) caused a problem with one of my extensions, so I downgraded to a previous version (1.98.1) which fixed the problem. I turned off automatic updates in the the Settings menu: in Application > Update, I set "Mode" to None. I also unchecked "Enable Windows Background Updates".

However, every time I start VS Code, it has updated to the most recent version again. My settings have not changed. This means I have to re-install the older version every time I open the program.

VS Code version: Code 1.98.1 (2fc07b8, 2025-03-10T15:38:08.854Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100
Modes:
Remote OS version: Linux x64 4.15.0-213-generic

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8265U CPU @ 1.60GHz (8 x 1800)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	7.87GB (0.45GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id c8a8b83e-7cfc-4004-a575-1eb865cd12ee
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	SSH: 129.173.122.236
OS	Linux x64 4.15.0-213-generic
CPUs	Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v4 @ 2.40GHz (56 x 1201)
Memory (System)	377.81GB (360.91GB free)
VM	0%

Extensions (15)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
jupyter-keymap	ms-	1.1.2
remote-ssh	ms-	0.119.0
remote-ssh-edit	ms-	0.87.0
remote-explorer	ms-	0.4.3
copilot	Git	1.301.0
copilot-chat	Git	0.25.1
debugpy	ms-	2025.6.0
python	ms-	2025.4.0
vscode-pylance	ms-	2025.4.1
jupyter	ms-	2025.2.0
jupyter-keymap	ms-	1.1.2
jupyter-renderers	ms-	1.1.0
vscode-jupyter-cell-tags	ms-	0.1.9
vscode-jupyter-slideshow	ms-	0.1.6
r	REd	2.8.5

A/B Experiments

vsliv368cf:30146710
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vscod805cf:30301675
binariesv615:30325510
c4g48928:30535728
azure-dev_surveyonecf:30548226
962ge761:30959799
2e7ec940:31000449
pythontbext0:30879054
cppperfnew:31000557
dwnewjupyter:31046869
pythonrstrctxt:31112756
nativeloc2:31192216
5fd0e150:31155592
dwcopilot:31170013
6074i472:31201624
dwoutputs:31242946
customenabled:31248079
9064b325:31222308
copilot_t_ci:31222730
e5gg6876:31282496
pythoneinst12:31285622
bgtreat:31268568
4gafe986:31271826
31787653:31262186
3e8i5726:31271747
996jf627:31283433
7bj51361:31286995
747dc170:31275177
aj496949:31278748
aj953862:31281341

[vs-code-engineering]

Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code, the latest stable release is 1.99.2. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains.

Happy Coding!

[lyambailey]

I don't know if this response was auto-generated (?) but this is not a good solution because I am trying to prevent updates

[GoToHiTori20070221]

https://worktile.com/kb/ask/572702.html

(THX Automatic translation software)
I'm not sure if you can read Chinese, so I'll explain the method to you here as well.

4. Disable automatic update service: VSCode comes with an automatic update service that checks and applies updates by running a background process called "update.service". We can disable this service to prevent VSCode from checking for updates. In the installation directory of VSCode, locate the 'resources/app/update-service.asar' file and change its suffix to another extension, such as'.old '.

Maybe can help you?
If you give me a second I'll try another virtual machine......

[lyambailey]

Thanks @GoToHiTori20070221 ! Unfortunately my resources/app directory doesn't contain a file named update-service.asar