{"id":47741,"date":"2023-04-09T18:23:20","date_gmt":"2023-04-09T18:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/visual-studio"},"modified":"2026-09-26T18:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T18:16:21","slug":"visual-studio-code","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/visual-studio-code","title":{"rendered":"Visual Studio Code"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"boxpad alignright wp-image-80553 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/visual-studio-code.jpg\" alt=\"Visual Studio Code\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/visual-studio-code.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/visual-studio-code-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <strong>Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Visual Studio Code<\/strong>, also known as VS Code, is a free, cross-platform source code editor developed by Microsoft. It combines a lightweight interface with intelligent editing, debugging, a terminal, source control, and an extension system.<\/p>\n<p>VS Code is available for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/windows\">Windows<\/a>, macOS, and Linux. It should not be confused with Visual Studio: although both products share a vendor and some technologies, they are designed for different ways of working.<\/p>\n\n<h2>How Visual Studio Code works<\/h2>\n<p>VS Code organises work around folders and workspaces. The editor analyses files through language services and extensions, while its integrated terminal, debugger, and source control allow much of the edit, test, and review cycle to happen without leaving the application. The <a href=\"https:\/\/code.visualstudio.com\/docs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">official VS Code documentation<\/a> explains its setup and main workflows.<\/p>\n<p>The application is built on Electron and uses the Monaco editor. Many advanced capabilities are not part of the core product: extensions add support for languages, debuggers, linters, formatters, or connections to external services.<\/p>\n<h2>Main VS Code features<\/h2>\n<p>The exact combination depends on the language and installed extensions, but the editor commonly provides these features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Intelligent editing:<\/strong> syntax highlighting, completion, navigation, refactoring, and error detection through IntelliSense and language services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Debugging:<\/strong> breakpoints, variable inspection, call stacks, and a debug console for supported environments.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Source control:<\/strong> integration with Git and services such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/github\">GitHub<\/a> for reviewing changes, branches, and conflicts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Terminal and tasks:<\/strong> commands, scripts, and build processes can run from the workspace.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Extensions:<\/strong> Marketplace add-ons adapt the editor to specific technologies and workflows.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Settings Sync:<\/strong> settings, keyboard shortcuts, and extensions can be synchronised when the user signs in and enables the feature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Extensions, languages, and remote development<\/h2>\n<p>VS Code includes basic support for many languages and formats, but advanced support usually comes from extensions. They can add language servers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/api\">API<\/a> clients, testing, databases, and deployment tools. Quality, maintenance, and data policies depend on each extension publisher.<\/p>\n<p>It can also work with remote environments through extensions for SSH, WSL, development containers, or tunnels. In these cases, some tools run in the remote environment while the interface remains on the local computer.<\/p>\n<h2>Artificial intelligence in Visual Studio Code<\/h2>\n<p>VS Code can incorporate assistants and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/ai-agent\">AI agents<\/a> to complete code, explain files, propose changes, or carry out tasks. These capabilities may come from GitHub Copilot, third-party extensions, or compatible providers; they do not make the editor itself a language model.<\/p>\n<p>The actual scope depends on the extension, account, model, and permissions granted. Before using AI with sensitive repositories, users should check what context is sent, where it is processed, which actions the tool may perform, and which retention policy the provider applies.<\/p>\n<h2>Privacy, security, and licensing<\/h2>\n<p>The official Visual Studio Code distribution may send usage, error, and crash telemetry to Microsoft, although users can adjust or disable that reporting. The <a href=\"https:\/\/code.visualstudio.com\/docs\/configure\/telemetry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">telemetry documentation<\/a> also notes that extensions may collect their own data and are not controlled by VS Code&#8217;s general telemetry setting.<\/p>\n<p>The source code for the Code &#8211; OSS project is available in the <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/microsoft\/vscode\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Microsoft repository<\/a> under the MIT licence. The Visual Studio Code distribution includes Microsoft customisations and is released under its own product licence. Installing extensions or granting access to terminals, repositories, and external services increases the attack surface.<\/p>\n<h2>Differences between Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio<\/h2>\n<p>Both products are used to develop software, but they are not equivalent. The main differences are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Type of tool:<\/strong> VS Code is an extensible code editor; Visual Studio is a fuller integrated development environment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Platforms:<\/strong> VS Code is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux; Visual Studio availability and capabilities vary by edition and operating system.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Configuration:<\/strong> VS Code builds many capabilities through extensions; Visual Studio includes more specialised tools by default.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Licence and cost:<\/strong> VS Code is distributed at no charge, while Visual Studio has editions with different terms and prices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The choice depends on the language, platform, project size, debugging and deployment needs, and the desired level of customisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visual Studio Code is a free, cross-platform code editor. Learn about its features, extensions, AI, privacy, licensing, and differences from Visual Studio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":80555,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[1383],"class_list":["post-47741","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-ai-programming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/47741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=47741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}