Visual Studio Code, commonly referred to as VS Code, is a widely popular code editor among developers globally. Its comprehensive extension library and easy-to-use interface have made it a preferred choice for many. The latest version, 1.78, brings with it a highly requested feature among the developer community: profile templates.

This new feature builds upon the already-existing VS Code profiles, and in this article, we will explore the different ranges of profile templates and how to customize them to enhance your workflow.

What Is a Profile in Visual Studio Code?

A profile in Visual Studio Code is a set of customizations created by adjusting various settings, extensions, and UI layouts within the editor. Profiles offer a convenient way to switch between different configurations and also share them with others.

With VS Code, you can create, customize, import, and export profiles to adjust the editor to fit your specific needs and preferences. You can create a profile from scratch directly in VS Code by using: File > Preferences > Profiles > Create Profile

Create Profile Steps

By default, your current configuration is your default profile. You can create a profile based on your current profile or from an empty profile. Either option will prompt you to enter a name for the new profile.

Features of a Profile in Visual Studio Code

Each profile comes with its own set of defined customizations, we can categorize this under the contents of a profile.

An ideal profile consists of:

  • Settings: This section is for the settings.json file that contains your preferred settings values.
  • Extensions: There are numerous extensions in VS Code that can be installed in your profile. This section contains the list of all those extensions. You can then customize it based on your selection.
  • UI state: This section contains a default globalState.json file that describes the layout and visibility of the VS Code elements.
  • Keybindings: By default, VS Code comes with some default keyboard shortcut commands and this section allows you to customize and modify those shortcuts for various commands and actions in the editor.
  • Snippets: This section consists of user-defined code snippets stored in {language}.json file format.
  • User Tasks: This section contains the tasks.json file that defines and configures tasks for the workflow.

For a profile created from scratch, the UI state section is automatically added by default.

Visual Studio Code Profile Templates

The introduction of profile templates offers an easy and efficient route to customize a VS Code profile. It provides built-in templates for different project types. Each template comes with a recommended list of extensions, user settings, snippets, and user tasks. The currently available templates support profiles for:

  • Python
  • Angular
  • Doc Writer
  • Java General
  • Java Spring
  • Data Science
  • Node.js

By selecting the appropriate profile template, you can easily configure VS Code for a particular project type without spending time researching, installing extensions, or manually adjusting settings.

How to Customize a Profile in Visual Studio Code

You can also create a profile based on a template by selecting a template when going through the create profile flow.

Creating a profile from a profile template

After creating a profile, you can make other modifications to suit your needs, such as:

Editing a Profile

You can add or remove extensions and configurations from the profile contents even after creating them. To reflect each modification in the profile, you must save the changes. Also, you can manage a profile by using: File > Preferences > Profiles > Show Contents.

Create Profile Steps

Rename a Profile

You can rename an existing profile can by selecting the rename option from the Profiles menu.

Steps for renaming a profile

Delete a Profile

You can delete a profile by selecting the delete option from the profile menu, then use the drop-down to select which profile(s) to delete.

Steps for deleting a profile

Uses Cases for Visual Studio Code Profiles

The profile feature in Visual Studio Code gives you the platform to customize your development environment to your specific needs. Profiles offer the flexibility to switch between various collections of extensions, settings, and keyboard shortcuts, without modifying the default configuration of VS Code.

This feature is especially useful for those who work on multiple projects or languages and need to toggle between different settings depending on their workflow. You can also use profiles to set up configurations for demo showcases.

Maximizing Productivity with VS Code Profiles

By leveraging the profile feature, developers can enhance their workflow and concentrate on the logic of their code instead of putting their focus on setting up their development environment.

In addition to this feature, VS Code offers a host of other productivity tools that make it one of the most efficient code editors available to developers today. With its user-friendly interface and extensive feature set, VS Code is a must-have for any developer looking to maximize their productivity.