VS Code users can't launch browsers after updates
10 posts since Jan 2024, all from GitHub.
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Not fully testable — the WSL extension is required to reproduce (remote only issue). The built in Markdown preview is affected, so it is not caused by a third party webview extension. VS Code Version: 1.141.1 (user setup)…”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes (the built in Markdown preview is affected too) Broken: VS Code Version: 1.141.1 (user setup) Commit: 7baac39ec3ca969dab74ac12c097f6a486e46593 Date: 2026 10 12T12:00:06 07:00 Electron: 43.7.7 (ElectronBuildId 15553055)…”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled? : Yes VS Code Version: 1.135.0 OS Version: Windows 10/11, x64 Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install VS Code on Windows x64 using the official User setup installer ( VSCodeUserSetup x64 1.135.0.exe , downloaded from…”
Users are experiencing issues launching browsers within VS Code following updates, receiving error messages indicating an inability to attach. This problem affects both Edge and Chrome and appears consistently across multiple versions of VS Code on Windows 11.
SOURCES (10)
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Not fully testable — the WSL extension is required to reproduce (remote only issue). The built in Markdown preview is affected, so it is not caused by a third party webview extension. VS Code Version: 1.141.1…”
“Type: <b Bug</b Webviews render blank in WSL remote windows after updating to 1.141.1 (resources return 401) Summary Since the auto update to VS Code 1.141.1, every webview in a WSL remote window renders completely blank (e.g. Markdown Preview and the Claude Code extension panel). The webview's own resources ( index.js , index.css ) fail to load with HTTP 401. Downgrading to 1.140 fixes the issue immediately with no other changes. Environment VS Code: 1.141.1 (stable, commit 7baac39ec3ca969dab74”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes (the built in Markdown preview is affected too) Broken: VS Code Version: 1.141.1 (user setup) Commit: 7baac39ec3ca969dab74ac12c097f6a486e46593 Date: 2026 10 12T12:00:06 07:00 Electron: 43.7.7 (ElectronBuildId 15553055) Chromium: 150.0.7871.250 Node.js: 24.21.0 OS Version: Windows NT x64 10.0.26300 Remote: WSL2 (Ubuntu) Works (same machine, only change is the downgrade): VS Code Version: 1.140.0 (user setup) Commit: 07f806f999227108933c”
“Type: <b Bug</b Open VSCode. Some indeterminate amount of time later get a release popup with: Update Error Visual Studio Code Current Version: 1.135.0 (08d4889) Released Aug 25, 2026 Update did not complete within expected time The popup goes away and then when I close VS Code I cannot open it again. Task manager shows Setup/Uninstall (32 bit) with VSCode symbol and Visual Studio Code Setup (32 bit) hanging around with 1.0M memory and no CPU When I attempt to open VSCode the task manager briefl”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled? : Yes VS Code Version: 1.135.0 OS Version: Windows 10/11, x64 Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install VS Code on Windows x64 using the official User setup installer ( VSCodeUserSetup x64 1.135.0.exe , downloaded from https://code.visualstudio.com/). The installer is digitally signed by Microsoft (verified: signature Valid , CN=Microsoft Corporation ). This is not the ZIP/portable archive. 2. Set update.mode = default . 3. Click the in app update act”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes VS Code Version: 1.133.0 OS Version: Windows with WSL 2 (Ubuntu 22.04) Steps to Reproduce: 1. Use VS Code with Remote WSL normally across multiple VS Code updates. 2. Check the Windows side Remote WSL server cache at $env:USERPROFILE\vscode remote wsl\stable . 3. Observe that old VS Code Server versions remain after newer versions have been downloaded and used. On my machine, this directory currently contains 61 VS Code Server version”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: N/A VS Code Version: 1.131.0 insider (user setup) OS Version: Windows 11 x64 10.0.26200 Summary A versioned Windows User Setup contains two entries for resources/app/product.json : 1. The recursive Source: " " entry copies the generic build product.json , which has no target . 2. A later explicit entry copies the setup generated product.json containing "target": "user" . If setup aborts after the first entry but before the second, rollback”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes VS Code Version: many versions, up to and including 1.109.3 OS Version: Windows 11 23H2 Steps to Reproduce 1. Create a launch.json similar to this, at least type msedge and chrome are affected: 2. Update Visual Studio Code 3. Restart Visual Studio Code the first time after updating. Try to launch the browser with F5. The error Unable to launch browser: "Unable to attach to browser" will appear: <img width="390" height="133" alt="Image"”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes VS Code Version: 1.94.2 OS Version: Windows 10 Steps to Reproduce: 1. Pick a font family that supports ligatures (like "Fira Code") and turn on font ligatures in settings. 2. See that characters that belong to different syntax scopes but happen to form a ligature are not colored as expected — examples below. Proposed solution: disallow ligatures to span across textmate scopes. Python syntax: ] is a ligature in Fira Code, but starts a c”
“Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes VS Code Version: 1.85.1 OS Version: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Steps to Reproduce: 1. Select text (do not copy) 2. Select different text and copy with CTRL+C 3. Middle click in a blank area. You either see no pasted output with "editor.selectionClipboard": false or you see the clipboard contents with "editor.selectionClipboard": true On Linux middle click should always paste the last selected text, never the text copied with CTRL+C. This breaks”