10 Popular Visual Studio Code Extensions

Visual Studio Code is one of the popular open-source code editors provided by Microsoft. Many developers prefer Visual Studio Code because it offers numerous extensions in areas such as functionality, productivity, debugging, and speed. These extensions help developers write better code. In this article, we will discuss the best Visual Studio Code extensions you should use in 2023 👇.
 

What Are Visual Studio Code Extensions?

Visual Studio Code is a source code editor that supports software and application development processes such as version control, debugging, and task running. Visual Studio Code offers services like code creation and debugging for most programming languages. However, to get better efficiency from Visual Studio Code in this process, extensions are also used. Extensions allow access to new functions. These extensions increase productivity and make coding easier and flawless.

What Do Visual Studio Code Extensions Do?

Visual Studio Code is a popular choice among code editors, and there are many reasons for this. One of the biggest advantages of this code editor is its extensions.

Visual Studio Code extensions offer extra features in many areas such as programming languages, style and theme, code management and editing, development tools, and more. Extensions make things easier and more efficient when writing code.

Extensions offer customization options, can be adjusted according to the user's preferences, and make usage even more enjoyable. By using code completion extensions, unnecessary errors can be avoided while coding. Therefore, using the right Visual Studio Code extensions provides a better coding experience.

How to Install Visual Studio Code Extensions?

Visual Studio Code extensions can be easily installed according to users' needs. To install Visual Studio Code extensions, you can follow these steps:

1. Open Visual Studio Code.
2. Find the “Activity Bar” on the far left. From the menu, click on the "Extensions" tab.
3. You will see a list of the most popular extensions available in the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. Select the extension you want from here. Or type the name or feature of the extension you want into the search bar. 
4. After clicking on the extension, click on the "Install" button.
5. After the installation is complete, restart Visual Studio Code by clicking on the "Reload" button.

In addition, you can see your installed extensions in the "Installed" tab, update them by clicking the "Update" button, or remove extensions by clicking the "Uninstall" button.

The 10 Best Visual Studio Code Extensions

Settings Sync

Settings Sync is an extension that can save everything via GitHub. It allows you to synchronize almost everything you customize in Visual Studio Code, from settings to keyboard shortcuts and other Visual Studio Code extensions, with GitHub. It uses GitHub Gists to facilitate these services. You can find more details about configuring GitHub with Settings Sync in their own documentation.

📍 Features

• The Settings Sync extension allows developers to synchronize snippets, settings, themes, key bindings, and file icons across various machines while working on a project.
• Easily downloadable.
• Contains a summary page with information about configurations.
• Includes a GUI to change settings.
• Offers support for GitHub Enterprise.
• The Settings Sync extension provides users with many different synchronization options.
• Customizable. 

Live Server

The Live Server extension is designed to make web development tasks easier and faster for Visual Studio Code users. This extension provides developers with real-time web page previews by allowing code changes to be viewed instantly during the development phase. 

Each time the code is saved, changes reflected on the browser are seen instantly. Thus, errors can be detected much faster. The Live Server extension has more than 2.4 million downloads.

📍 Features

• The Live Server extension is an extension that is very easy to install within Visual Studio Code. 
• Easy to start and stop the server.
• Provides shortcut support.
• The explorer menu allows you to launch the browser and open HTML files.
• Allows creating web pages in different languages.
• Provides browser support.
• CORS is enabled by default.
• The Live Server extension allows developers to run web pages with the HTTPS protocol.

Remote - SSH

The Remote - SSH extension allows you to use any remote machine with an SSH server. This extension makes development and/or troubleshooting much easier in various scenarios. The Remote – SSH extension has more than 12 million downloads.

📍 Features

• Supports different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, Ubuntu, Debian, and CentOS.
• Does not require the source code to be on the local machine.
• Allows switching between different development environments without slowing down the local computer.

•  

  Prettier is a software tool used while writing code, and it especially makes the editing process easier for codes used in JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, and HTML files. Prettier automatically applies commonly used styles and edits while writing code, making the code more readable. 

  Prettier is currently one of the most popular Visual Studio Code extensions. So far, more than 23 million developers have downloaded the Visual Studio Code Prettier extension.

  📍 Features

  • Prettier is compatible with many programming languages such as JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, and HTML. 
  • Allows code formatting with keyboard shortcuts.
  • Provides automatic formatting, making script files easily readable.
  • Easy to install. 
  • Prettier ensures consistency in projects. This makes it easier for changes made in the code to reflect throughout the project.
  • Offers error detection feature.

   

  GitHub Copilot

  GitHub Copilot, is an artificial intelligence tool that assists in programming. This tool was developed by OpenAI and provides support for many programming languages. GitHub Copilot offers code suggestions, auto-completes code, and helps in writing code. Copilot provides real-time code and function suggestions. 

  📍 Features

  • GitHub Copilot offers code suggestions and code completion suggestions to users while coding. 
  • GitHub Copilot provides natural language support. 
  • GitHub Copilot supports many programming languages.
  • GitHub Copilot provides examples to users during the coding process. These examples allow users to code quickly by using examples instead of writing complex codes.
  • Regularly updated and new features are added. 

   

  Auto Rename Tag

  Auto Rename Tag is an extension for Visual Studio Code users and works effectively in HTML, XML, and Markdown files. While Visual Studio Code naturally adds closing tags immediately when you write an opening tag, Auto Rename Tag automatically renames the changed tags.

  The Auto Rename Tag extension works for HTML, XML, PHP, and JavaScript. It eliminates the need to change tag names twice. This extension is useful when working with many nested components in the code. Instead of changing opening and closing tags, you can effectively manage your tagging needs using the Auto Rename Tag extension. 

  📍 Features

  • Helps significantly reduce the effort and time spent on development.
  • Suitable for projects where a large number of opening and closing tags are involved.
  • Performs the same functionality as Visual Studio IDE.

   

  GitLens

  

  GitLens is an extension that enhances the Git capabilities of Visual Studio Code. This extension allows you to track exactly who, when, and why changes were made in the code. This feature makes it easy to detect and fix errors in the code. GitLens is a highly customizable extension. With GitLens, you can easily visualize code. GitLens has more than 16 million downloads. 

  📍 Features

  • GitLens allows easy navigation through the history of a file.
  • Shows who made the most recent change at the end of each line.
  • Can easily integrate with GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Gerrit, GoogleSource, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps. 
  • Is a customizable extension.

   

  Git History

  Similar to GitLens, Git History is a Visual Studio Code extension that provides a visualization of the git history. The Git History extension allows users to view the git history and details in their projects within the Visual Studio Code editor. This extension helps users track changes in their projects and understand why these changes were made.

   

  CSS Peak

  CSS Peak is a browser extension that allows web developers to quickly navigate and search in CSS files. This extension allows you to expand to display CSS/SCSS/LESS code in HTML and ejs files. It also allows you to quickly reach the correct CSS code if you know the class or ID name. It also provides the flexibility to comment on any line.
   

  JavaScript Code Snippets

  Visual Studio Code includes JS IntelliSense. JavaScript Code Snippets enhance this experience by adding a variety of class helpers and method triggers. This extension supports technologies like JS, TypeScript, JS React, TS React, HTML, and Vue. It simplifies finding a specific object in a collection of objects. JavaScript Code Snippets can be used to improve overall developer experience in the long run.