VSCode should not open browser on first start without user's say-so

[janisozaur]

• VSCode Version: 1.7.1 02611b4
• OS Version: Arch

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install visual-studio-code from AUR
2. Open installed application.

Upon first start vscode opens a web browser pointing to https://code.visualstudio.com/docs?start=true. It should not do that without getting a confirmation from user it is OK to do so.

Some editors choose to have a "welcome" page with links to documentation (cf. Eclipse, Qt Creator), it could be one possible solution.

Perhaps a MD/RST document could be opened upon first start with some brief info and helpful links (cf. Vim, Emacs).

Another option would be a prompt asking user to open a link could do as well, but personally I think this would be worse solution.

[rebornix]

Assign to @chrmarti as it's kind of getting started experience.

[dawsbot]

First-time permissions aside, Is this supposed to happen each time you open vscode? I'm finding the "Getting Started" docs annoying each and every time I want to edit with vscode.

[chrmarti]

@dawsonbotsford This should only happen once - on first startup. Please open an issue if it shows more than once.

[dawsbot]

@chrmarti I swapped to the Insiders build and I haven't seen this issue anymore. Will let yall know if it arises again. I also got a reset color scheme each time I opened vscode, so clearly something was wonky with persistence.

[mnghsn]

+1 in 2018.

Opening browser pretty annoying when I re-install VS Code.
Now we have a welcome page to give user some guide and help, I think there's no need to open a browser.

[tinanigro]

+1 there should be at least a Command Line Option flag to disable the automatic opening of a browser window on first launch, to better comply with automated deployment scenarios.

[rkennesson]

I could have sworn there was a command line option posted to one of these issues but I can't find it.

I was going to add it to my dotfiles but figured I could find it again if I needed it. Unfortunately the words I would use to search for it are so common that I can't seem to find it or remember how I got to it in the first place.

[chrmarti]

--skip-getting-started will skip opening the browser until you start without that flag. You probably want to always pass it.

[rkennesson]

I don't know if this will survive updates but I'm going to try it. I'm on Kubuntu but if anyone is so inclined to try it it can be modified to suit your situation. I'm no expert so, until it's built into vscode, if there's a better way I'm willing to try it

edit .bashrc and add

alias code='code --skip-getting-started'

and then to edit the *.desktop files

sudo sed -i 's|/usr/share/code/code|/usr/share/code/code --skip-getting-started|g' /usr/share/applications/code*

maybe in the future a settings.json variable could be set like skip-getting-started: true and code --skip-getting-started would add that to the settings.json file if it didn't exist. I'm sure you folks can think of something better but it's just an idea

[mnghsn]

VS Code reads ~/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/state.vscdb SQLite database which has workbench.hide.welcome=true to determine whether open welcome page on browser. You can edit and backup this file to your dotfiles.

I have a state.vscdb that make VS Code skip welcome page and some notifications on first start up.
https:/jmlntw/dotfiles/blob/master/vscode/globalStorage/state.vscdb

[rkennesson]

@jmlntw awesome. thanks. I took a look at it in sqlitebrowser and it's a nice simple fix. I'm going to add it to my vscode install script for later.

[jrieken]

Thanks to @bpasero we finally stopped doing this 👯‍♂ 👯

[bpasero]

Actually for September.