I'd check out https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Performance-Issues#slow-startup. There are instructions there for using code --prof-startup to gather profile files if you want to report an issue ticket, and instructions on how to read startup timers by using the Developer: Startup Performance command in the command palette.

You can also find out how long each extension is taking to load by using the Developer: Show Running Extensions command in the command palette, which will show activation times for all enabled extensions, and whether the extension was activated during startup, or later after startup finished. If there are extensions that you don't typically use in all your workspaces that are slow to activate, I'd suggest you disable them globally and enable them on a per-workspace basis.

If you have any antivirus enabled, check if performance improves if you temporarily disable it. If startup time changes noticeably, then find out if your antivirus has any configuration points to make it ignore VS Code (VS Code has a workspace trust mechanism that can help protect you, but of course, use your own judgement as to whether you can tolerate possible other risks). Ex. VS Code is not responding (Slow Startup and Unresponsive) even with extensions disabled.

Answer from starball on Stack Overflow
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GitHub
github.com › microsoft › vscode › issues › 186121
VS Code Slow startup · Issue #186121 · microsoft/vscode
June 25, 2023 - VS Code is slow on startup, it takes about 10–15 seconds to become usable. Then every time a blank screen pops up, and sometimes it says to reload...and then after that everything almost works fine.
Author   mohitmuktikant
Top answer
1 of 3
4

I'd check out https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Performance-Issues#slow-startup. There are instructions there for using code --prof-startup to gather profile files if you want to report an issue ticket, and instructions on how to read startup timers by using the Developer: Startup Performance command in the command palette.

You can also find out how long each extension is taking to load by using the Developer: Show Running Extensions command in the command palette, which will show activation times for all enabled extensions, and whether the extension was activated during startup, or later after startup finished. If there are extensions that you don't typically use in all your workspaces that are slow to activate, I'd suggest you disable them globally and enable them on a per-workspace basis.

If you have any antivirus enabled, check if performance improves if you temporarily disable it. If startup time changes noticeably, then find out if your antivirus has any configuration points to make it ignore VS Code (VS Code has a workspace trust mechanism that can help protect you, but of course, use your own judgement as to whether you can tolerate possible other risks). Ex. VS Code is not responding (Slow Startup and Unresponsive) even with extensions disabled.

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I encountered this issue on my new Linux Mint laptop, which was quite frustrating. Eventually, I discovered a workaround. Interestingly, I found this solution after experiencing a similar problem with Chromium.

alias code="2>/tmp/vscode_output code --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer \"$@\""

(in /tmp/vscode_output it says: "Warning: 'disable-software-rasterizer' is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium.")

I am not a windows user but my guess is that the parameters --disable-gpu and --disable-software-rasterizer used in the Linux command can potentially be applied to vscode on windows as well. You can modify the command for windows like this:

doskey code=code --disable-gpu --disable-software-rasterizer $*

This sets up an alias in the windows command prompt similar to the bash alias in Linux. It could help resolve similar issues with vscode on windows systems. (not tested)

Discussions

VS Code taking a long time to start up
https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Performance-Issues#read-the-startup-timers You can also try to bisect the extensions, toggle developer tools to look for issues, open the process explorer for faulty extensions, use a different update channel like VSC insider to check if the issue still persists. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/vscode
2
1
May 24, 2023
Very slow startup (20-30 seconds)
Issue Type: Performance Issue Everytime when i want to start VS Code, it takes 20-30 seconds to open. I just remember, i changed a number in the settings to something like 999999999999 to load some... More on github.com
🌐 github.com
10
March 22, 2020
increasing speed of vs code startup
Do you have any extensions installed? I haven't timed it, but my boot time is in the 5 second range. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/vscode
8
11
January 12, 2019
VSCode Slow startup
Issue Type: Bug VS Code is slow on startup, it takes about 10-15 seconds to become usable. It happens both when I open it normally or when I double click a file. I tried everything in this guide: h... More on github.com
🌐 github.com
9
August 28, 2022
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/vscode › vs code taking a long time to start up
r/vscode on Reddit: VS Code taking a long time to start up
May 24, 2023 -

I like VS Code, because it's lightweight and relatively fast. But for some reason, it takes a long time (about a minute) to start up on my new laptop.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled it, and removed all extensions. But it's still taking a long time to open. My laptop is an XPS 13 running Windows 11 and it's only a couple of months old. VS Code opens fairly quickly on all of my other machines, except this one.

Has anyone encountered this before?

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VSCode.one
vscode.one › make-vscode-faster
Here's How to Make VSCode Faster
VS Code is built with a framework called Electron (developed by Github). Electron is generally known for it's slow start up times. This is not an excuse though. VS Code starts up comfortably fast for most users.
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GitHub
github.com › microsoft › vscode › wiki › performance-issues
Performance Issues · microsoft/vscode Wiki
Hit F1 and select "Startup Performance." This will open an editor with all starting performance details · Please share these numbers with us as they often allows us to understand what is slow. For advanced scenarios, consider runtime debugging to attach an external profiler to VS Code processes.
Author   microsoft
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Mike Bifulco
mikebifulco.com › home › how to make vs code load faster with a little bit of housekeeping
How to make VS Code load faster with a little bit of housekeeping | Mike Bifulco
November 7, 2021 - Over time, if you're anything like ... as it sounds - you can gain quite a bit of startup performance by removing unused and unnecessary extensions from VS Code, by opening your Extensions pane (Shift + command + X on a mac, likely ...
Find elsewhere
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GitHub
github.com › microsoft › vscode › issues › 93155
Very slow startup (20-30 seconds) · Issue #93155 · microsoft/vscode
March 22, 2020 - Issue Type: Performance Issue Everytime when i want to start VS Code, it takes 20-30 seconds to open. I just remember, i changed a number in the settings to something like 999999999999 to load some...
Author   Striker-Dev
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GitHub
github.com › microsoft › vscode › issues › 156557
VSCode Slow startup · Issue #156557 · microsoft/vscode
August 28, 2022 - Issue Type: Bug VS Code is slow on startup, it takes about 10-15 seconds to become usable. It happens both when I open it normally or when I double click a file. I tried everything in this guide: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/...
Author   gabriele-ricci-kyklos
🌐
GitHub
github.com › microsoft › vscode › issues › 204243
slow start up · Issue #204243 · microsoft/vscode
February 3, 2024 - Type: Performance Issue when i installed a new update of vs code 1.86 then onwards the my vs code is opening slowly in previous version it works very well and opens very fast. Please retify the bug ASAP VS Code version: Code 1.86.0 (0504...
Author   Lalithallu
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GitHub
github.com › microsoft › vscode › issues › 174420
Extremely slow startup on a reasonably powerful Win 11 machine · Issue #174420 · microsoft/vscode
February 15, 2023 - Vscode takes about 30 seconds to launch for me, but is perfectly fast after that. My Windows 11 Dell laptop has all the latest Windows Updates, and all the latest Dell driver updates (graphics card, et al). I uninstalled vscode, deleted ...
Author   sjaffe314
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YouTube
youtube.com › watch
How To Fix VS Code Slow Startup - YouTube
How To Fix VS Code Slow StartupIn this video, I will show you how to fix VS Code slow startup and make Visual Studio Code open much faster. If VS Code takes ...
Published   February 4, 2026
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Gitbook
bryan-guner.gitbook.io › my-docs › code-editors-and-tools › vscode › how-to-speed-up-vscode
How To Speed Up Vscode - My Docs - GitBook
Stay with me to see how you can help your favorite extensions load fast! One possible cause is the number of files or the size of the extension. Some extensions have so much functionality in them that they can slow down over time.
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Quora
quora.com › What-could-be-causing-Visual-Studio-Code-to-have-a-slow-start-on-Linux
What could be causing Visual Studio Code to have a slow start on Linux? - Quora
Answer (1 of 2): Usually resource usage, specifically CPU consumption. If there are several processes running in the background, try closing those and see if it helps. I would also recommend checking for any malicious processes that could consume ...
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Julia Programming Language
discourse.julialang.org › new to julia
VS Code REPL very slow startup - New to Julia - Julia Programming Language
November 13, 2022 - Hello, I installed julia with juliaup from the windows store (win 11), then installed Julia 1.8.2. Everything works fine in the Julia shell. I installed the vscode julia extension. I was trying to use the VS Code REPL feature but it takes ~1/2 min to start each time getting stuck in the LanguageServer startup.
Top answer
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From https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal:

By default, the integrated terminal will render using GPU acceleration on most machines. It does this using multiple elements, which are better tuned than the DOM for rendering interactive text that changes often.

However, Electron/Chromium are slower rendering to canvas on some environment and so VS Code also provides a fallback DOM-renderer experience. VS Code will try to detect slow performance and give you the option to change via a notification.

You can also change the rendering directly by setting terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration in your user or workspace settings. (On Windows/Linux: File > Preferences > Settings)

{
    "terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration`": "off"
}

Something else that might improve performance is to ignore Chromium's GPU blacklist by launching VS Code with code --ignore-gpu-blacklist.

It worked for me, not like a real terminal but better than nothing, I hope this helps!

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4

special thanks to this reddit post.

my problem with vs code: bad performance when writing text and selecting text in the editor. freezes about 0.5 seconds

there are several causes for this problem:

  • monitor refresh rate

(desktop user case) check you graphics card refresh rate. if you GPU has a max of 60hz then configure your monitor to 60hz.

if you have a secondary external monitor (laptop user case), then:

  1. check your gpu refresh rate. (for example you find 60hz)
  2. go to settings
  3. make secondary monitor primary
  4. disable built-in display (laptop display)
  5. set secondary monitor to 60hz
  6. reboot

for me, this option with refresh rate worked like a charm. right now its not lagging anymore when typing/selectin text and im using manaro 21 xfce. i know, why talking about manjaro on askubuntu, but i had the same problem in ubuntu 20.04 gnome too, but at that time i wasnt stroke with a refresh rate idea.


  • vim emulator vs code extension

usually, vs code is handling the keypresses by itself, but when vim extension is installed it overrides the control. vim extension is single-threaded and not very well optimized and when you type you may have bad performance, so uninstall vim extension.

  • too many extensions

try uninstalling the unimportant extensions or make a sacrifice to reduce the total number.

  • bad graphics driver

try using other graphics driver. use open-source ones, try performance. use proprietary ones, try performance.

  • laptop is in power saving mode

try setting your cpu to performance mode.

EDIT date: (11.05.2022)

the problem was my HDD, was too slow. after moved to SSD, performance of writing text is good, because write and read speed from the SSD is faster.

but vs code is still slow. performance is really bad (compared to sublime + im very impatient).

solution: move to sublime text 4.

done.

indeed, vs code is slow