VSCode shutdown issue

I’ve been using Visual Studio Code enthusiastically for the past I can’t remember how many years, from the moment I heard about it. It’s an amazing tool, it’s fast enough (as long as you overload it with plugins, but you shouldn’t), it’s extensible enough (mostly due to the use of JavaScript as base language), it’s easy to integrate many workflows in it, and it’s becoming a reference point for everyone including non-technical people. It works splendidly on Linux, it works very well on Windows as well.

But there’s one point that irks me. That pisses me off everytime this happens, and I know it’s a general Windows problem. But I hate it when I do a shutdown for my Windows machine and VSCode stops the operation to perform the software update.

Now, this is a bit sneaky, because luckily VSCode doesn’t bug you too much with doing software updates. It just does the software update when you shut it down, if there is an update available and it had enough time to download it. The problem? This doesn’t work well at all with the way Windows does shut down.

So if I have a VSCode instance that sneakily downloaded the software update, when I try to shut down the computer (and, of course, leave because we’re among adults and Windows is old enough to shut down by itself), VSCode stops the shutdown process because it wants to perform that update. It doesn’t perform it because supposedly it asks the user about it; however, the user wanted (commanded) a shutdown. So when I return home 10 hours later I find my computer still on, locked and waiting for… I’m not sure what for.

This is almost fine for desktops, but it’s not good at all for laptops - because you command a shut down, then shove it in your bag only to have your bag burn because Windows didn’t properly shut down. And while I know this is a generic Windows issue, not being able to shut down in a mature manner, and I would prefer people at Microsoft working on this and not on shoving more spyware in the name of marketing and AI buzzwords. But it’s also a problem with VSCode, because VSCode, being written mostly by Microsoft should know better.

This happens all the time. No exceptions. So it’s also easy to track. Is there a bug posted on github? I have no idea. I can’t believe I’m the only one who has this issue. I just wonder how Microsoft can create a piece of software that is unfriendly with its own operating system.