Profiling VSCode
In this issue:
The recent newsletters discussing profile protection got me thinking about PowerShell profiles in general. I thought it might be helpful to talk about profiles in Visual Studio Code (VSCode). Although, to be technical, I'm referring to a profile that configures the integrated terminal that is loaded when using the PowerShell extension.
Profiles
This PowerShell session is yet another instance of a hosting application. If you want to have certain variables or PSDrives in the VSCode PowerShell session, you can place that code in the $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts script.
PS C:\> $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts
C:\Users\Jeff\Documents\PowerShell\profile.ps1
Anything in this script will run in any PowerShell 7 session. However, the profile script for the current user in the current host is what I want to look at. In a VSCode PowerShell session, you will see something like this for the $profile variable.
PS C:\> $profile
C:\Users\Jeff\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1
The file name is hard-coded and will reside in your Documents folder. The file, and possible the PowerShell folder do not exist by default. It is simple enough to create this file from PowerShell.
New-Item $profile -force
You can use this script file to configure your VSCode PowerShell experience. But maybe you didn't realize there was an experience to be had. Let's look at what you might want to put into this profile script.
PSEditor
The integrated PowerShell terminal running in VSCode has a built-in variable called $PSEditor. This exposes the object model for the underlying VSCode Editor Services.
PS C:\> $PSEditor | Format-List
EditorServicesVersion : 4.4.0.0
Workspace : Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.EditorWorkspace
Window : Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.EditorWindow
You can use this object for scripting and automation projects.
Workspace
The Workspace is the VSCode project space that you have opened. Mostly, I open a folder in VSCode and that becomes my workspace.
PS C:\> $psEditor.Workspace
Path Paths
---- -----
d:\OneDrive\behind\2026\vscode-profile {d:\OneDrive\behind\2026\vscode-profile}
Look at what we can do with this:
PS C:\> $psEditor.Workspace | Get-Member
TypeName: Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.EditorWorkspace
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
CloseFile Method void CloseFile(string filePath)
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
NewFile Method void NewFile(), void NewFile(string content)
OpenFile Method void OpenFile(string filePath), void OpenFile(string fil…
SaveFile Method void SaveFile(string filePath), void SaveFile(string old…
ToString Method string ToString()
Path Property string Path {get;}
Paths Property string[] Paths {get;}
I can easily open a file from a PowerShell prompt.
$psEditor.Workspace.OpenFile($profile.CurrentUserAllHosts)
It is also easy to create a new file. Yes, you can use the Ctrl+N shortcut. But you can also insert text into the new file and have it open in the editor.
$psEditor.Workspace.NewFile("#requires -version 7.6`n")
Window
Before we get too far, let's look at the other editor item, Window.
PS C:\> $PSEditor.window | Get-Member
TypeName: Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.EditorWindow
Name MemberType Definition
---- ---------- ----------
Equals Method bool Equals(System.Object obj)
GetHashCode Method int GetHashCode()
GetType Method type GetType()
SetStatusBarMessage Method void SetStatusBarMessage(string message), void SetStatusBarMessag…
ShowErrorMessage Method void ShowErrorMessage(string message)
ShowInformationMessage Method void ShowInformationMessage(string message)
ShowWarningMessage Method void ShowWarningMessage(string message)
ToString Method string ToString()
Terminal Property Microsoft.PowerShell.EditorServices.Extensions.EditorTerminal, M…
