I ended up deleting the whole Code folder within the C:\Users\AppData\Roaming.

Note: You have to check the box - view Hidden Files to see these folders within File Explorer.

This solved it.

There must have been some weird corrupted cache issue at the heart of this.

I found this in C:\Users<profile>\AppData\Roaming\Code\logs<datetimestamp>\ptyhost.log

[2022-10-17 07:25:50.695] [ptyhost] [warning] Couldn't get layout info, a terminal was probably disconnected Could not find pty on pty host
[2022-10-17 07:25:54.040] [ptyhost] [warning] Shell integration cannot be enabled for executable "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" and args []
[2022-10-17 07:26:57.939] [ptyhost] [warning] Shell integration cannot be enabled for executable "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" and args []

I think it is related to this.

BTW: I had tried adding a couple of PowerShell VSCode IDE Extensions when things went awry. IIRC they were:

• PowerShell
• PowerShell Preview

I had upgraded PowerShell to the latest version 7 too.

$PSVersionTable yielded the following from the respective executables.

Maybe that combo hosed things

Follow up note: Whilst it seemed to have fixed the issue once... soon after the problem manifested itself again. This time I couldn't reset VS Code to a working environment.

• Then I realised had opened the Project folder in the explorer on the left of the IDE.
• I had a subfolder that had a PS1 file within that.
• It didn't have its own .vscode\settings.json
• When I copied it down from the parent folder, suddenly everything worked again.

.vscode\settings.json just contained this:

{
}

Again this ended up being a one time solution. I ended up back at:

Shell activation failed to activate for cmd.exe

I posted this as a new ticket here

• In the end I found this to be more of a display issue than anything else!
• You can actually type cls then hit ENTER, to restore things to the status quo.
• The Terminal section is black with no prompt to begin with. But you can type in it!!!
• Perhaps the Prompt is black text on a black background initally, since when you start typing cls, it's quite a way to the right of the left margin.

There are a few potential solutions for this issue.

• Make sure that you have the latest version of VS Code and the Shell Integrate extension installed.

• Check that the integrated terminal in VS Code is set to the shell you want to use (e.g. PowerShell, Command Prompt, Bash).

• Try running VS Code as an administrator.

• If you are using Windows, try adding the path of the shell you want to use (e.g. C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe) to the "terminal.integrated.shell.windows" setting in your VS Code settings.

• You can also try reinstalling VS Code and your extensions.

If none of the above solutions work, you can try searching for specific error messages in the output panel of VS Code or in the output of the terminal.

Closing VSCode, verifying that powershell works, then reopening it worked for me.

This issue was caused by the 1.70 update of VSCode, an issue has been raised on the VSCode github: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/157611

In the meantime the fix is to disable shellIntegration in your VSCode settings: "terminal.integrated.shellIntegration.enabled": false and add the following to your .zshrc:

[[ "$TERM_PROGRAM" == "vscode" ]] && . "$(code --locate-shell-integration-path zsh)"