Visual Studio Code v1.52 Changelog

This update is all about making your daily workflow smoother and less frustrating. It matters a lot to developers who spend hours juggling files, comparing code changes, and troubleshooting misbehaving extensions. The team also took a break from building new toys to do some massive "housekeeping," closing thousands of bug reports and feature requests to keep the editor running fast and clean.

What's new

• Extension Bisect: "Bisect" is a debugging trick where you test things by splitting them in half. VS Code now has a built-in tool that uses this method to turn your extensions (add-ons) on and off in batches. It helps you quickly hunt down which specific add-on is crashing or slowing down your editor.
• Undo in File Explorer: If you accidentally delete, rename, or move a file, you can now just hit Undo (Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z) while in the file explorer to reverse the mistake.
• Word Wrap in Diff Editor: A "diff editor" is a split-screen view that shows the differences between two versions of a file. Previously, long lines of code would just run off the screen. Now, they wrap down to the next line so you can read everything without scrolling left and right.
• Keep Editors Open: VS Code used to open files in a temporary "preview" mode, replacing the last file you looked at until you double-clicked to pin it. You can now turn off preview mode completely if you prefer every file to open in its own permanent tab.
• Restore Previous Windows: A new setting called preserve forces VS Code to remember every single window you had open before you closed it. Even if you double-click a file on your computer to open it, VS Code will still open that file *and* bring back all your other windows from your last session.
• New Git Commands: Git is a system developers use to save and track changes to their code. New settings were added to make tracking and managing those changes easier.
• Create Shortcuts from the Command Palette: The Command Palette is a search bar where you can find and run any tool in VS Code. You can now search for a tool and instantly turn it into a custom keyboard shortcut right from that menu.

Improvements

• Sticky Tab Stops: When you use the spacebar to indent code, the cursor now behaves much more naturally, acting like it's snapping to invisible grid lines rather than moving one space at a time.
• Smarter Word Suggestions: When you start typing a word, VS Code now looks at *other* files you have open to guess what you are trying to type, giving you better autocomplete suggestions.
• Progress Bars for Big File Operations: If you are copying a massive folder or downloading files from a remote server, VS Code now shows a progress bar and even lets you cancel the operation if it's taking too long.
• Sorting Open Editors: If you have a ton of files open, you can now sort your "Open Editors" list alphabetically. This is great for keeping related files (like app.js and app.html) next to each other.
• Better Terminal Settings: You can now change how your built-in terminal looks and works directly from a dropdown menu inside the terminal itself.
• Source Control Paths: When looking at code changes in your Source Control view, it now shows the parent folder path, making it easier to know exactly where the file lives.
• Accessibility for Screen Readers: Progress bars now use special background code (ARIA roles) so that screen readers can announce long-running operations to visually impaired users.

Fixes

• Terminal Environment Loading (Mac & Linux): VS Code relies on your computer's background "shell" (the system that runs commands) to set up its environment. Sometimes, loading this took too long and blocked the app from opening. Now, if it takes more than 3 seconds, VS Code shows a warning, and if it takes more than 10 seconds, it just opens anyway and lets you know it couldn't load the background settings.
• Proxy Login Dialog: The pop-up box that asks for your username and password when connecting through a proxy (a middleman server for your internet) has been updated and is now turned on by default, fixing older login glitches.

Breaking changes

No breaking changes in this release.