Visual Studio Code should update itself silently

[kasajian]

I think automatic update is great, but I think some people just want the thing updated automatically without being asked. There can be notification that indicates that it's changed and what's new. But I think we should follow the Chrome model and just update it.

Why?

Think of it as software running on the web. When I go to cnn.com, I'm not notified that there's a new version of the back-end software that I might be running. So why / when should I care if the front-end software has updated?

Sometimes you care -- such as low-bandwidth situations. But that doesn't mean everyone cares. Some of us, dare I say, a large majority of people, just want the latest stuff all the time.

Thank you for listening.

• VSCode Version:
• OS Version:

Steps to Reproduce:
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[bgse]

Problem with automatic, unconfirmed updating is that users might rely on a feature that breaks with the update, they might require a specific extension that doesn't work properly with the update, etc.

In very strict environments, the user might not even have the required privileges for the update process to complete successfully, or he might be required to ask for approval of a superior before upgrading a toolset, etc.

For the insiders release, I would actually welcome it not nagging every day and just updating automatically, for the stable release, not so much since that is the tool I rely on for production usage.

[Mike737377]

Should be a setting so the user can pick whether they want to automatically upgrade

[kieferrm]

This is the 'stable channel' version of #7389.

[Spown]

Could be a setting defaulted to false. Can already imagine an avalanche of "high cpu/hdd load on startup // VSC unresponsive // etc" bugreports every update if this feature becomes a default behavior.

[CodyBatt]

This is the number 1 thing that bothers me about code specifically on Windows, (so that just speaks to how great code is). I'm not sure if anything is being done here so I feel compelled to add my two cents. This is not just annoying to people on the insider track. The stable updates come frequently enough to annoy the shit out of me over the last year. There is a well-established pattern for how to do this and you should just copy: chrome, github for windows, spotify, slack, curse, or any other of the tons of desktop apps that have frequent updates do it silently and automatically.

Might break functionality:
How do I know as a user that the update is going to break my workflow? Until I install it, I don't. Even if I do read the release notes, I might not understand the implications until I use it. By leaving that choice up to the user you shift the blame for things breaking onto them and give them a crappy update experience as a bonus. Instead, if this is a legitimate concern, you should provide an easy way to roll back to the previous known-good version. More work for you, yes, but more satisfaction for end users.

Might cause high load on startup:
Don't install the update on startup. No one wants slow startup. There are many ways around this, install in the background, install on shutdown... again copy one of the other apps that does it right.

Make it a setting:
If you must. Most users won't know or care about it, unless you turn it off by default, then every user will have to know about it because they will all want to enable it!

Might not have permissions:
Code should install into AppData\Local or some other non-restricted location. If that means it doesn't use MSI, so much the better.

[joaomoreno]

@CodyBatt You make some good points.

I'm curious, though, did you get an update that broke functionality? If so, please file an issue on that.

There is a setting to disable updates: update.channel: "none".

User installations: #534

[CodyBatt]

@joaomoreno No update has ever broken functionality for me (I was just responding to what I think is a weak excuse for the current update behavior). I don't want to disable updates! Like the OP stated, I just want them to occur silently, automatically, without interrupting my workflow.

There is one really good thing about the current behavior, when I have insomnia, I can just think about the update experience in VS code and cry myself to sleep. :)

[klmcwhirter]

I agree. I am constantly being asked to restart VS Code because of extension updates. And the upgrade of VS Code does not work. When I get annoyed enough of the prompts I download the latest version and reinstall.

UPDATE
Note I am running on Mac OS X.

I determined via log file ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.microsoft.VSCode.ShipIt/ShipIt_stderr.log that my problem was permissions.

I had VSCode installed in /Applications and it could not replace that version with the update.

I have moved it into ~/Applications and adjusted my helper script accordingly. I have not seen any more requests for restart where they were coming every 5-10 mins.

Notice that I found a bunch of cruft in a directory named /var/folders/lj/vc5bqkb1107_sxdtx3gnp1yr0000gp/T as well.

[PowerWeb5]

Agreed, this would make vscode more attractive to use frequently, with less tedious updates.

[bpacholek]

I made a simple solution for Debian:
https://github.com/ideaconnect/vscode-autoupdate

I have it in cron, automatically updates vscode for my everyday around 11:00

[krux02]

What I want is to be able to press "never annoy me again" whenever I see "an update is available". I don't care unless something breaks, and then I do it on my own. Those update notifications are annoying, and that is the real problem.