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Is there a standard way to handle Visual Studio Code inside a company network, in which VS Code is not allowed to contact the Internet?

For e.g. Eclipse, we can host our own update sites for plugins and can package pre-configured versions of the IDE for the developers.

Is there something similar for VS Code?

J Fabian Meier
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  • Do you have internet access via a company proxy or no internet access at all? – Fred Mar 07 '22 at 12:25
  • And what are the features you think you'd miss out if you use VSCode without internet access? Auto-updates? AddOns? ...? – Fred Mar 07 '22 at 12:33
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    @Fred Usually, you need a variety of extensions, and the standard way is to load them from the internet. The VS Code should be completely separated from the internet, but we could e.g. connect a server to the internet via proxy or download a ZIP etc. and provide it to others via a server. – J Fabian Meier Mar 07 '22 at 12:39
  • How do you separate the extension from the web? It doesn't matter if VSCode downloads it automatically or you download it and install it manually: unless you check every line of code, it is a potential threat – Fred Mar 07 '22 at 12:40
  • I stalked your profile and understand the environment you're trying to do state-of-the-art software development in (because I come from a similar world). My word of advice: don't waste time on security voodoo pseudo solutions that your IT sec department forces you to do because they don't understand modern software development. Instead, quit your job and move to a place where this is already possible without workarounds. – Fred Mar 07 '22 at 12:42
  • Is it just you who needs VSCode with extensions or are you looking for a solution that works for all of your developers? If it's just you, you can install everything you need manually and just don't tell anyone about it :-D – Fred Mar 07 '22 at 12:44
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    I would to find a way to allow our developers to use VS Code. We cannot allow them to install arbitrary extensions from the internet. – J Fabian Meier Mar 07 '22 at 13:25
  • See my answer below – Fred Mar 07 '22 at 13:44
  • "We cannot allow them to install arbitrary extensions from the internet." But why? Is it, because you have a flat intranet with no security zones? So whatever gets in can destroy everything. Then you have to fix your network, not restrain your developers! – Fred Mar 07 '22 at 13:49

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There are two ways (I know of) how you can provide pre-configured VSCode-installations

A) VSCode inside a Docker container. You'll have a minimal standard installation of VSCode on your computer, all plugins and settings come with the Docker image that is loaded into your local VSCode installation. See docs here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers

B) VSCode web. This is a zero-installation version of VSCode which is running in the web browser. See docs here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/vscode-web You can try it on GitHub: open any repo and change .com in the domain to .dev

Fred
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