Tag Archives: VSCode

Some Recommended VS Code Extensions

One of the things that makes Visual Studio Code (VSCode) such a great editor is the many extensions that have been built for it. Extensions in VSCode are explained here. As a reference for myself when building new machines,and anyone else who might find this useful, below is a list of my most used extensions:

  • Bracket pair colorizer – Colours your brackets and braces for easy identification. I avoid many missing bracket errors with this one!
  • XML Tools – XML Formatting, XQuery, and XPath Tools.
  • ESLint – Extension to integrate ESLint into the IDE.
  • SonarLint – Sonar Rules in VSCode to check your code quality as you go.
  • Prettier – Integrate Prettier into your IDE
  • GitLens – Extend the Git capabilities of VSCode with this tool.
  • PowerShell – Develop PowerShell scripts inside VSCode.
  • Docker – Develop Dockers scripts inside VSCode. Adds syntax highlighting, commands, hover tips, and linting for Dockerfile and docker-compose files.
  • REST Client – Allows you to send HTTP requests and view the response directly in VSCode.
  • JS Refactor – Automated refactoring tools to smooth your JavaScript development workflow.

Check out more on the VSCode marketplace.

What are you using?

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Using PowerShell for your VS Code Integrated Terminal

Microsoft’s superb Visual Studio Code editor has an integrated terminal which is accessed via the ‘View’menu or via the Ctrl+’ shortcut keys. On Windows by default the terminal used is the Windows Command Prompt (cmd.exe) terminal, however you can easily configure VS Code to use a different terminal such as Windows PowerShell.

Open the User Settings config file (the ‘settings.json’ file accessed via File > Preferences > User Settings) and modify the setting for which terminal to run on Windows:

The default setting is:

 “terminal.integrated.shell.windows”: “C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\cmd.exe”,

To use the PowerShell terminal instead add this to your settings.json user settings file:

“terminal.integrated.shell.windows”: “C:\\Windows\\sysnative\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\Powershell.exe”,

Now PowerShell will be used instead of cmd.exe. Currently only one terminal can be configured in VS Code and so you can’t have both PowerShell and cmd.exe so you’ll have to choose your favourite for now. You can however access mutliple instances of the terminal via the drop down on the terminal window.

vscodeposhterminal2

Finally whilst on the subject of VS Code and PowerShell I recommend installing Microsoft’s PowerShell Extension which lets you code and debug PowerShell scripts directly within VS Code (and benefit from its features, e.g. git integration etc).