Profile & Performance Optimisation
VS Code has a built-in startup profiler and extension performance monitor. This lesson shows you how to diagnose a slow editor and make it feel fast again.
1Startup Performance
Press Ctrl+Shift+P → Developer: Startup Performance. VS Code shows a timeline of every phase of startup and which extensions contributed to load time. Anything over 500ms is worth investigating.
2Extension Bisect
If VS Code feels slow, run Ctrl+Shift+P → Help: Start Extension Bisect. This binary-search process disables half your extensions at a time and asks if performance improved — pinpointing the culprit in just a few clicks.
3Process Explorer
Open Help › Process Explorer to see CPU and memory usage for every VS Code process — the main window, every extension host, and language server processes. Kill unresponsive extension hosts without restarting the whole editor.
4Disabling Extensions Per Workspace
Most performance issues come from one heavy extension running in every workspace. Right-click the extension → Disable (Workspace). Commonly culprits: large language packs, Jupyter (if unused), and heavy formatters.
5Editor Performance Settings
{ "editor.minimap.enabled": false, "editor.renderWhitespace": "none", "git.autoRepositoryDetection": false, "extensions.autoUpdate": false, "search.followSymlinks": false }