visual-studio-code

How to prevent Visual Studio Code from always reopening the previous files or folders?

Visual Studio Code always seems to remember my session and reopen the files and/or projects that were open the last time I used it. It obviously behaves correctly when running it from the command line with a file or folder supplied, but when opening from a taskbar shortcut, I'd like it to default to an empty environment.

Is there any way to change this behavior?

Solution

  • You can also go into your settings and use the following:

    "window.reopenFolders": "none"

    which will not reopen the folders you were working on when you closed the editor. The other options are one (the default) and all.

    Edit 2017-11-09:

    The option is now changed in latest versions.

    "window.restoreWindows": "none"

    See Mathieu DOMER's answer.

    Edit 2018-09-12:

    Another setting related to this is the hotExit setting. This has been discussed in this answer to a related question. To prevent reopening and remembering unsaved files, you can set this to:

    "files.hotExit": "off"

    But from the test I've made, when the window.restoreWindows setting is set to none, this is not needed. I haven't tested every possible combination, so YMMV.

    And to answer a question in the comments, to edit the settings, you have to open the settings file. Some documentation can be found here (at least on the date I am writing this).

    Edit 2022-03-16:

    If you prefer using a GUI to change the settings, see D'Arcy Rittich's answer.