Repository: vscode
Issue: Trying to bootstrap extensions into a portable and user/system installations into VSCode
Labels: info-needed


Type: <b>Bug</b>

I am unclear if this is a bug and is probably just an issue of not trulyy understanding the process. In the 1.96 release notes there was a section about bootstrapping extensions into VSCode. I followed those steps but the editor did not silently install the extensions that were placed in the folder as directed. I have tried to do this for both a portable version as well as user and system installations. Can I get some clearer guidance on this path? We are building a customized VSCode installer for a group of blind and low vision students and we are highly customizing the environment, shipping extensions, adding key bindings and more. I am trying to avoid shippiing an entire extensions folder but would rather just proviide the market place files and have VSCode bootstrap them into their build.

VS Code version: Code 1.96.4 (cd4ee3b1c348a13bafd8f9ad8060705f6d4b9cba, 2025-01-16T00:16:19.038Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26120
Modes:

<details>
<summary>System Info</summary>

|Item|Value|
|---|---|
|CPUs|AMD Ryzen 5 Microsoft Surface (R) Edition (12 x 2196)|
|GPU Status|2d_canvas: enabled<br>canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on<br>direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok<br>gpu_compositing: enabled<br>multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on<br>opengl: enabled_on<br>rasterization: enabled<br>raw_draw: disabled_off_ok<br>skia_graphite: disabled_off<br>video_decode: enabled<br>video_encode: enabled<br>vulkan: disabled_off<br>webgl: enabled<br>webgl2: enabled<br>webgpu: enabled<br>webnn: disabled_off|
|Load (avg)|undefined|
|Memory (System)|7.45GB (0.47GB free)|
|Process Argv|--crash-reporter-id 5a524437-3f52-4db4-af12-3ac13392aa4b|
|Screen Reader|yes|
|VM|0%|
</details><details><summary>Extensions (34)</summary>

Extension|Author (truncated)|Version
---|---|---
Bookmarks|ale|13.5.0
vscode-intelephense-client|bme|1.12.6
vscode-innosetup|cho|1.9.3
vscode-markdownlint|Dav|0.58.2
prettier-vscode|esb|11.0.0
copilot|Git|1.257.0
copilot-chat|Git|0.23.2
vscode-pull-request-github|Git|0.102.0
vscode-htmlhint|HTM|1.0.5
file-history|Jef|1.0.0
vscode-dotnet-runtime|ms-|2.2.5
vscode-edge-devtools|ms-|2.1.6
black-formatter|ms-|2024.4.0
debugpy|ms-|2024.14.0
pylint|ms-|2024.0.0
python|ms-|2024.22.2
vscode-pylance|ms-|2024.12.1
vscode-python-envs|ms-|0.1.2025011501
remote-ssh|ms-|0.116.1
remote-ssh-edit|ms-|0.87.0
live-server|ms-|0.4.15
powershell|ms-|2024.4.0
remote-explorer|ms-|0.4.3
vscode-copilot-vision|ms-|0.1.1
vscode-speech|ms-|0.12.1
vsliveshare|ms-|1.0.5948
pytest-runner|pam|0.0.10
LiveServer|rit|5.7.9
partial-diff|ryu|1.4.3
markdown-preview-enhanced|shd|0.8.15
code-spell-checker|str|4.0.34
gitdoc|vsl|0.2.3
markdown-all-in-one|yzh|3.6.2
zen-mode-on-startup|zen|0.0.1


</details><details>
<summary>A/B Experiments</summary>

```
vsliv368cf:30146710
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vscod805cf:30301675
binariesv615:30325510
vsaa593:30376534
py29gd2263:31024239
c4g48928:30535728
azure-dev_surveyone:30548225
2i9eh265:30646982
962ge761:30959799
pythonnoceb:30805159
pythonmypyd1:30879173
2e7ec940:31000449
pythontbext0:30879054
cppperfnew:31000557
dsvsc020:30976470
pythonait:31006305
dsvsc021:30996838
dvdeprecation:31068756
dwnewjupyter:31046869
nativerepl1:31139838
pythonrstrctxt:31112756
nativeloc1:31192215
cf971741:31144450
iacca1:31171482
notype1cf:31157160
5fd0e150:31155592
dwcopilot:31170013
stablechunks:31184530
6074i472:31201624
dwoutputs:31217127

```

</details>

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