Installing and Configuring VSCode
Download VSCode Coding Pack for Java – visit this link to download the coding pack. You should see something like the following, a button that says “Install the Coding Pack for Java”. Choose the one for your operating system.
After the installer downloads, run the installer. You should see the following screens.
Choose to accept the user agreement and choose next.
What you see on the next screen depends on what you have installed. My computer did not have Visual Studio Code nor the Java Development Kit (JDK). You may already have one or both installed. Click Install to install any missing components.
If all goes well, it will tell you what it’s installing and successfully complete. Click next and you should end up at the closing screen. You don’t need to launch Visual Studio Code at this point; we’ll configure that later. Uncheck the box (unless you want to run VS Code) and click Finish.
Done! VS Code is installed!
Install VS Code Manually (if the coding pack fails to download VS Code)
If all did not go well, you may see something like the following, where Visual Studio was unable to be installed. If this is the case, no worries!
Click “Install manually” to open the downloads page. Then close the Coding Pack for Java installer. You’ll rerun it after you’re done installing VS Code.
Choose the download for your operating system.
Windows Manual Installation
Once it downloads, run the installer. Accept the agreement and click Next.
The default path is fine. Click Next.
Choose what you want to name the shortcuts in your Start Menu or click “Don’t create a Start Menu folder” if you don’t want the shortcut. Click Next.
Choose if you want to create a desktop icon or not. Check
Add “Open with Code” action to Windows Explorer file context menu
this will let you right click and open with VSCode from the file explorer
Register Code as an editor for supported file types
this will let VSCode open files like .java files
Add to PATH
this allows you to open VSCode from other applications on your computer
Click Next.
Click Install.
If all goes well, it will install. Click next and you should end up at the closing screen. You don’t need to launch Visual Studio Code at this point; we’ll configure that later. Uncheck the box (unless you want to run VS Code) and click Finish.
Now go back and rerun the Coding Pack for Java installer to install the JDK.
MacOS Manual Installation
Double click the zip file to extract the Application. You should see “Visual Studio Code” as an Application file.
Move this file from your Downloads to your Application folder.
Done! Now go back and rerun the Coding Pack for Java installer to install the JDK.
