The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

Program homepage: https://code.visualstudio.com/
Documentation: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs

Portable version: http://gareth.flowers/vscode-portable/

Gareth Flowers wrote:Visual Studio Code is a code editor redefined and optimized for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications.

Visual Studio Code Portable is the Visual Studio Code text editor packaged with a PortableApps.com launcher as a portable app, so you can browse in privacy on your iPod, USB flash drive, portable hard drive, etc.
It has all the same features as Visual Studio Code, plus, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take it with you wherever you go.

VSCode is free (MIT license), open source and cross-platform by Microsoft; built with Electron. The vanilla program (not the portable version) writes to the user profile folder, etc.

It looks/works a lot like Atom (eg, command palette), and is in fact portabilised by the same person.

Uncompressed, VSCode Portable weighs in at 114Mb.

Some features:

• IntelliSense ("smart completions based on variable types, function definitions, and imported modules.")
• Extensible ("add new languages, themes, debuggers, and to connect to additional services. Extensions run in separate processes, ensuring they won't slow down your editor.")
• Built-in Git commands.
• In-editor debugging ("launch or attach to your running apps and debug with break points, call stacks, and an interactive console.)

Edit: requires .NET 4.5

That looks really cool and I've heard great things about Visual Studio for many years. Unfortunately I'm a little worried about the license ... https://code.visualstudio.com/License/ Open but very confusing. May play nice with others, may not. Might be MIT or it might be something else. Good luck with that.

The main program is cross-platform.

As shnbwmn noted, the developer of the portable version is the same guy that did Atom Portable: http://gareth.flowers/atom-portable/ ... I should probably reach out to this guy.

webfork wrote:That looks really cool and I've heard great things about Visual Studio for many years.

Visual Studio Code isn't Visual Studio. It's just a text editor with the Visual Studio brand.

As says shnbwmn, on november 18, 2015 Visual Studio Code was released under the MIT License and its source code posted to GitHub.
- Visual Studio Code web site: https://code.visualstudio.com/
- Visual Studio on GitHub: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode

Gareth Flowers has made a portable version of Visual Studio Code, at moment, rel 1.4.0:
- Visual Studio Code Gareth Flowers project page: http://gareth.flowers/vscode-portable/
- GitHub download page: https://github.com/garethflowers/vscode ... e/releases
- GitHub direct download offline archive: https://github.com/garethflowers/vscode ... le_1.4.zip
- GitHub direct download online installer: https://github.com/garethflowers/vscode ... ne.paf.exe

Be the way
- offline archive and online installer are multilanguage and will select the same lang as Your Windows (on PC)
- Online installer create a portable version of Visual Studio Code in Your favorite folder
(usually C:\PortableApps\VSCodePortable)

Video and tutorials:
- on Microsoft Visual Code Editor: https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs
- on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... nTB9ZzVEpT
- John Papa web site: https://johnpapa.net/visual-studio-code/

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Studio_Code :
Visual Studio Code is based on Electron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_ ... framework), a framework which is used to deploy Node.js applications for the desktop running on Blink layout engine.
Although it also uses the Electron framework, the software is not a fork of Atom, and is actually based on Visual Studio Online's editor (codename "Monaco").

The short version: it's opposite day in portable freeware land.

Background:

In all the years I've been working on this site, none of the efforts here have been acknowledged by Microsoft in any way. While I always thought it was strange since this project collectively represents quite a lot of users, my reasoning was that was either (A) outside the purview of a very big company or (B) the self-contained nature of portable apps makes them easier to run on other operating systems (via WINE or other tools), which is generally not something they want to promote.

Admittedly, things have been gradually changing at Microsoft, but I still didn't expect to ever see a portable program. Yet the crazy doesn't stop there:

1. Microsoft actually explains that the portable version is to get around corporate environment restrictions. From the website:
   

   This mode also provides a way to set the installation folder location for VS Code extensions, useful for corporate environments that prevent extensions from being installed in the Windows AppData folder.

   Those are the same restrictions that the Windows enterprise OS was specifically developed to maintain. In fact, much of the work we do here is for the direct purpose of getting around Microsoft's installer restrictions. It's certainly a big reason for my ongoing participation on the site over the years: companies I work at give me a locked-down environment and I try to get work done despite the limits.
2. There are instructions on how to make it portable in MULTIPLE OPERATING SYSTEMS. Even with the increasing demand for cross-platform software, I can name only 2 or 3 programs I've ever tested with this capability.

I'm speechless.

---

License: MIT

Steps:

1. Download the zip version
2. Within the application folder, create a folder named "data"

Status: Portable, not stealth (writes to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Visual Studio Code\logs, shell changes to the HKU\..\vscode, HKU\..\Software\Classes\vscode, and a few other places.

Note that on launch, it opens a URL: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs?start=true

Website: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/portable

Softpedia mirror: https://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABLE- ... able.shtml

I'm using VS Code myself for programming at work. It's a very nice editor, it gets improvements at a rather rapid rate (see January update release notes as an example), and it has a lot of features useful for programming, especially with extensions. For example, there is an ESLint extension, allowing me to get warnings about potentially incorrect JavaScript code while I'm typing it.

I'd say that VS Code is the one of the best Electron programs out there. Even its memory usage is one of the lowest among Electron programs.

Curious if anyone has attempted to get Visual Studio Code working as a development editor for NT. Not finding much on this via search.
Visual Studio Code is free to use and thereby much more accessible to average users. It is a very capable C# development editor. Would appreciate if anyone can shed light on what the potential challenges would be to use it for NT development.
Thanks

Xireast wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:40 am Curious if anyone has attempted to get Visual Studio Code working as a development editor for NT. Not finding much on this via search.
Visual Studio Code is free to use and thereby much more accessible to average users. It is a very capable C# development editor. Would appreciate if anyone can shed light on what the potential challenges would be to use it for NT development.
Thanks

Umm... what's NT?

SYSTEM wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:27 am Umm... what's NT?

Uncertain whether you are jesting...

...but for the improbable case you are not ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT

__philippe wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 6:08 am

SYSTEM wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:27 am Umm... what's NT?

Uncertain whether you are jesting...

...but for the improbable case you are not ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT

Windows NT is what first came to my mind, but it doesn't make sense here.

Even though all Windows versions since XP have technically been Windows NT, the branding hasn't been used after Windows NT 4.0 (1996). There is no way anyone (often than a very small group of retro-hobbyists) would still care about software that runs on Windows NT 4.0. And anyone who means modern WinNT versions such as Win7 or Win10 would just say "for Windows", not "for NT".

Well, then :

...calling OP Xireast to enlighten us with the current predicament...

One day soon, no one alive will know the pain of deciding which NT service pack to install.

Anyway, he probably didn't mean Windows NT. My best guess is that he meant dotNET but who knows?

Yep, I'm betting that is some translating noise from not being a native English speaker...

mhhh...dunno about that...

the OP's turn of phrase sounds pretty slick, fluent English to my ear,
...tired as this old appendage might be...

Visual Studio Code v1.40.2 released "October 2019" (changelog at https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/).

The best statement about native portability I could find was this:

Alternatively, you can also download a Zip archive, extract it and run Code from there.

Downloads are at https://code.visualstudio.com/Download.