How to Reset Visual Code Studio Completely on Windows 10 or 11

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) offers a wide range of customization options that we can use to configure the code editor as per our requirements and convenience. However, there might be a scenario when you have set something wrong but don’t know what exactly or how to correct it. At that time you would like to reset VS Code to its default settings... If yes, then here is the tutorial for that, to help you either start your coding with a clean state or troubleshoot issues.

Reset VScode to factory settings in Windows

We have shown multiple ways to partially reset VS code settings or completely reset it to its factory settings without performing any reinstallation of the application. The choice and requirements all are yours, go for any of the given ways accordingly. Learn – How to add Visual Studio Code to the System Path in Windows 11 or 10

1. Resetting to Default Factory Settings

This method is for those who want to completely delete all existing data, history, extensions, and other settings from their Visual Studio Code to start again from scratch as they did the first time after completing the installation of VSCode.

• Close your VScode, if already opened.

• Press the Win+R keys to open the RUN box.

• Type or Paste the path where VScode user data resides i.e – %APPDATA%\Code\User

• Select and delete all folders available inside the user directory we just have opened of VS code. It includes Globalstorage, History, Snippets, WorkSpace Settings, Setting.json file and more… This will factory reset VsCode and set all settings to their default like they were initially.

• To delete all extensions as well, in the RUN box type – %USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions and delete all the folders inside the directory.

• Now, again open Visual Studio Code and this time you will see the “Get Started with VSCode” window to start again like the first time you have installed the application.

Note: The location of the user data folder in Mac is at: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code/User whereas in Linux: $HOME/.config/Code/User

2. Resetting VS Code Settings only:

If you don’t want to delete or remove everything such as Globalstroage, History, user data, and extensions instead only want to reset the settings of VScode then that can be done either by simply removing the Settings.json file or manually deleting.

Follow the given steps:

• Open Visual Studio Code Settings. In Windows or Linux we can use Ctrl + , shortcut or Cmd + , in Mac to open the Settings.

• Press the F1 key and type – user setting.

• Select “Preferences: Open Settings (JSON).” from the search results to open the settings.json file.

• Remove all configurations or replace them with the default settings. Save the file by pressing the Ctrl+S keys or from the File Menu option…

• Alternatively, you can manually edit the settings.json file located at:
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json
  • Mac: $HOME/Library/Application Support/Code/User/settings.json
  • Linux: $HOME/.config/Code/User/settings.json

3. Disable or uninstall Extensions only:

Maybe you are facing some issues on Visual Studio Code only because of extensions, if that is the case then you would need to disable or reinstall them.

• Open the Extensions view by clicking on the Extensions icon in the Activity Bar on the side of the window or using the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + X.
• In the Extensions view, click on the three dots in the top-right corner and select “Show Installed Extensions.”
• Disable or uninstall the extensions you want to reset.
• Restart VS Code.

4. Reinstalling VS Code:

Even after deleting user data to reset the settings and uninstalling the extension has not solved the problem you are facing in VSCode then the last resort is simply uninstall and reinstall Visual Studio Code.

For that ofcourse download the the latest version of Visual Studio Code from its official website. After that remove the exisitng VScode installation from the apps.

Once done, run the downloaded setup to reinstall the VScode. This process will give you a completely clean installation with default settings.

Alternatively, we can use the Microsoft package manager Winget to reinstall the Visual Studio Code, here are the commands to follow:

winget remove vscode
winget install vscode

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