visual studio code - couldn't start client language support for java

Visual Studio code was working fine with maven projects, and suddenly stopped after I installed a new extension (Lombok).

I can't seem to get it to work anymore, even if I'm not using Lombok, and have the plugin disabled.

As soon as I start Visual Studio Code, it complains with

Couldn't start client language support for java

How can I fix this?

To solve this, I did the following:

• Went to the installed extension (Command Pallette, Extensions: Installed Extensions)
• found "Language suppoort for Java(TM) by Red Hat"
• Clicked on the drop down arrow by "Uninstall", and chose "Install another version"
• Chose a recent version, and restarted Visual Studio Code
• it worked - I assume I could upgrade to latest again, but haven't done so yet.

Note: I feel that somehow I broke my settings.json file, and doing this fixed it up.