Install Visual Studio Code Using PowerShell

Problem

In this blog post, we will show you how to install Visual Studio Code (VS Code) using PowerShell.

The installation process consists of three parts:

Define the download URL and the destination
Download VS Code installer
Install VS Code silently

You can directly apply the third step above if you already have the installer or download it manually. All solutions below share all the steps above. They only differ in how they download the installer.

Using Invoke-WebRequest and Start-Process

First we need to define variables that hold the download URL and the destination of installer. Then, we use Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet to download the file and put it in destination folder.

Next, we perform silent installation using Start-Process cmdlet. We add -Wait parameter to wait until installation process completely finished.

We also add /verysilent and /mergetasks=!runcode arguments. The former argument not only will instruct the installation process to be performed in silent mode but also prevent the wizard and the background window to be displayed.

Meanwhile the latter argument will prevent launching VS Code after installation process finished. Lastly, we will remove the installer using Remove-Item cmdlet.


# Define the download URL and the destination
$vscodeUrl = "https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-user"
$destination = "$env:TEMP\vscode_installer.exe"

# Download VS Code installer
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $vscodeUrl -OutFile $destination

# Install VS Code silently
Start-Process -Wait -FilePath $destination -ArgumentList /verysilent, /mergetasks=!runcode

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $destination

/verysilent and mergetasks arguments come from Inno Setup since Vs Code using Inno Setup to create its setup package for Windows.

Using Invoke-RestMethod and Start-Process

Similar to previous solution, but in this one we will use Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet to download the file. We can use this cmdlet because the communication is using HTTP(S) that is supported by RESTful services.


# Define the download URL and the destination
$vscodeUrl = "https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-user"
$destination = "$env:TEMP\vscode_installer.exe"

# Download VS Code installer
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $vscodeUrl -OutFile $destination

# Install VS Code silently
Start-Process -Wait -FilePath $destination -ArgumentList /verysilent, /mergetasks=!runcode

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $destination

Using WebClient and Start-Process

Similar to previous solution, we can also use WebClient class from .NET Framework to download the file since PowerShell is deeply integrated with .NET Framework.


# Define the download URL and the destination
$vscodeUrl = "https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-user"
$destination = "$env:TEMP\vscode_installer.exe"

# Download VS Code installer
$WebClient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$webclient.DownloadFile($vscodeUrl, $destination)

# Install VS Code silently
Start-Process -Wait -FilePath $destination -ArgumentList /verysilent, /mergetasks=!runcode

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $destination

Using HttpClient and Start-Process

We can also use HttpClient from .NET Framework to download the installer, then install VS Code silently.

There are two flavors in using .NET Framework, i.e., C# code from PowerShell. We can create the object using PowerShell syntax as in previous solution or we can also embed C# code in our script then invoke it.

In this case, we present both of the approaches.

Create C# object using PowerShell syntax

In this approach, we need to apply dispose pattern by enclosing each call to HttpClient constructor, GetStreamAsync and FileStream methods with try-finally block. It is optional to put catch block if we want to handle the exception specifically.

At finally block we close the connection after we have used disposable object. Otherwise, we won’t be able to perform silent installation because the process is still being used by another process.

A more concise way to apply dispose pattern in C# is to use using statement, but since PowerShell doesn’t have the syntax we can use try-finally block.


using namespace System.IO
using namespace System.Net.Http

# Define the download URL and the destination
$vscodeUrl = "https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-user"
$destination = "$env:TEMP\vscode_installer.exe"

# Download VS Code installer
try {
    $client = [HttpClient]::new()    
    try {
        $stream = $client.GetStreamAsync($vscodeUrl)
        try {
            $fileStream = [FileStream]::new($destination, [FileMode]::Create)
            $stream.GetAwaiter().GetResult().CopyTo($fileStream)       
        }
        finally {
            <#Do this after the try block regardless of whether an exception occurred or not#>
            $fileStream.Dispose()
        }         
    }
    finally {
        <#Do this after the try block regardless of whether an exception occurred or not#>
        $stream.Dispose()
    }    
}
finally {
    <#Do this after the try block regardless of whether an exception occurred or not#>
    $client.Dispose()
}

# Install VS Code silently
Start-Process -Wait -FilePath $destination -ArgumentList /verysilent, /mergetasks=!runcode

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $destination

Embed C# code then invoke it from PowerShell

In this approach, we copy and paste our C# code to PowerShell, then enclose it with Add-Type -TypeDefinition in order to add it to PowerShell session. Then, we will be able to call the method to download the file from PowerShell.


# Create C# Code to Download VS Code installer
Add-Type -TypeDefinition @"
    using System.IO;
    using System.Net.Http;

    public static class Downloader {
        public static void DownloadInstaller() {
            //Define the download URL and the destination
            string vscodeUrl  = "https://code.visualstudio.com/sha/download?build=stable&os=win32-x64-user";
            string destination = Path.Join(Path.GetTempPath(), "vscode_installer.exe");

            using (var client = new HttpClient())
            {
                using (var s = client.GetStreamAsync(vscodeUrl ))
                {
                    using (var fs = new FileStream(destination, FileMode.OpenOrCreate))
                    {
                        s.Result.CopyTo(fs);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
"@
[Downloader]::DownloadInstaller()

# Install VS Code silently
Start-Process -Wait -FilePath "$env:TEMP\vscode_installer.exe" -ArgumentList /verysilent, /mergetasks=!runcode

# Remove installer
Remove-Item "$env:TEMP\vscode_installer.exe"

Conclusion

To install Visual Studio Code using PowerShell, we need to download the file first and then perform silent installation. To download the file, there are some cmdlets we can use: using Invoke-WebRequest or Invoke-RestMethod. We can also use .NET Framework class like WebClient or HttpClient to download the installer.

If we already have the installer, we can perform silent installation using Start-Process cmdlet with /verysilent and /mergetasks=!runcode arguments. Optionally, we remove the installer using Remove-Item cmdlet after installation process finished.

Install Visual Studio Code Using PowerShell

Problem#

Using Invoke-WebRequest and Start-Process#

Using Invoke-RestMethod and Start-Process#

Using WebClient and Start-Process#

Using HttpClient and Start-Process#

Create C# object using PowerShell syntax#

Embed C# code then invoke it from PowerShell#

Conclusion#