Link to open directory in Windows Explorer - visual-studio-code

Is it possible in VSC to add a URL that opens a directory in Windows Exporer?
For example: "file:///C:/"
This should open Windows Explorer in the C directory.
It doens't work.
Thanks.

Related

Change default download folder when working remotely in VSCode in Windows

When working remotely via SSH or WSL in VSCode in MS Windows, I can right-click a file in the Explorer view and choose "Download", this will download the file to the local computer. But the default download folder is always C:\Users\$USERNAME\.ssh, which doesn't make sense for me. I can't find any settings related to this.
How can I change the default download folder in VSCode when working remotely via SSH or WSL?

How to change folder that opened by default in VSCode?

I have small problem with VSCode folder, that opened by default.
Problem description: I start new instance of VSCode (trough File->New Window), and then if I choose File->Open Folder it opens dialog with my Windows user folder as starting point (C:\Users\MyUser)
Question: How can I change that folder in settings (if it possible)? So by default it will show as start point for example D:\development\ ?
At the time I write this answer, this is not possible. There are two problems on Windows, and one problem on Mac and Linux:
VS Code does not provide a default path to the file dialog 1. It does remember the last folder that you opened a file in, but that path cannot be used as a default because it is overwritten constantly.
On Windows only, Electron ignores the default path when creating a file dialog if the default path is a directory 2.
An extension also cannot solve this, because extensions are not allowed to modify the File menu 3.
I think the best option at this point is to pin a folder to the Quick Access area in Windows Explorer, as suggested in a comment, or to put an actual shortcut in the user profile folder.
Workspaces and File > Open Recent may also be helpful if you often open the same folders.
Your main problem is that you are unable to open your specific folder in VScode.
To solve that you can simply open the terminal/cmd in that specific window by just typing cmd in your search bar or just by pressing shift+right-click in that folder.
Now your cmd is open and you just have to type "code ." in the cmd and press enter to open the current folder in your VSCode.
In case that code . doesn't work for you then you have to add the Vscode in the environment variables of your windows.
Visual Studio doesn't provide a specific feature to open a specific path. But there is a solution to your problem. You are saying that you want D:\develpment as a default when you open VS Code. You can go to that specific directory or create shortcut to desktop then click right click on that folder and then click on open with code. If you didnot see open with code then reinstall your VS code and check on open with code when you are reinstalling VS Code.
make a shortcut on the desktop for vscode and then modify it and add the folder after the .exe command. This will default open that folder when you double click on it.
Visual Studio Code can be installed in two ways - User setup and System setup. I strongly believe you have User setup installed in your PC. Try re-installing it System-wide. That should probably fix your problem.
For more information: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/windows#_user-setup-versus-system-setup
PS: A lot more information is needed, you can share a screenshot of the window and elaborate more on it.

How to open a file in vscode under wsl using the vscode:// url?

I would like to open a file in vscode under WSL (Windows Subsystem Linux) using the vscode:// url.
You can do it with a normal file in the usual filesystem vscode://file/c:/myProject/package.json
It is clearly explained in the documentation
I would like to open a file which is located in WSL, so to have something like this
vscode://file/home/user/myProject/package.json
But It does not work !
It does not work to use the complete path in windows as it does not start the WSL vscode
vscode://file/C:\Users\john\AppData\Local\Packages\TheDebianProject.DebianGNULinux_76v4gqsdeaz4\LocalState\rootfs/home/user/myProject/package.json
You can use the following scheme vscode://file//wsl$/Ubuntu-18.04
In your case it will be vscode://file//wsl$/Ubuntu-18.04/home/user/myProject/package.json
But unfortunately file is opened in a new window.
Please see https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/99691
To open a remote window, don't use file but vscode-remote.
Please try vscode://vscode-remote/wsl+distro+name/path/to/file
Source: Opening VS Code with URLs doesn't work with \wsl$ urls

Problem with saving and reopening a vscode workspace initiated from WSL

I open my vscode with code . command from WSL terminal because I want to work directly in my WSL. It works fine and for example, the file explorer of vscode shows directory structures based on WSL machine and not based on my Windows machine.
My problem is however that, when I save a workspace using File -> Save Workspace As, it saves it again as a workspace in my Windows machine. So when I close and open my vscode again and use Open Workspace... to open the already saved workspace(in previous step), explorer reads directories from Windows machine.
You might ask what's the difference between saving files in /mnt/c/Users/[user]/Desktop or C:\Users\[user]\Desktop, but the problem is two things:
I might open a session from a directory in WSL that is (unlike Desktop) inaccessible from Windows.
Even if my Desktop is my current working directory, I may add another directory to my workspace (using Add Folder to Workspace...) and even if it is a path accessible from Windows, the next time I open the workspace, I will get an exclamation mark and such an error near that directory in explorer:
C:\mnt\d\Files_And_Downloads\Google Drive_Code . Can not resolve workspace folder
I suspect this is a bug, vscode has mixed the WSL path and Windows path. So anyone who uses Remote - WSL extension and can tell me what's going on here?

Use file path from clipboard to open directory in explorer

I am looking for a way to open a file in the windows explorer.
The file directory is stored in a QR Code, after decoding, the path gets copied to the clipboard. From there it needs to be opened in the windows explorer because the QR Decoder doesn't automatically recognize the code as a file path.
Is there a way to process a file path in Powershell and open it in the windows explorer?
If you have a recent version of Powershell then you can just do this:
explorer (Get-Clipboard)
You can open a folder in Windows Explorer via PowerShell like this:
[System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start(<FolderPath>)
Or this:
Start-Process -FilePath <FolderPath>
This also works for other items, such as URLs, which will open in your default browser.