Open multiple Projects/Folders in Visual Studio Code

Question

How do I open multiple projects/folders in a single Visual Studio Code instance, and open multiple files in single view? Does it has any option for future change request?

Answer 1

On Windows it's possible to use mklink to create directory symbolic links to the needed folders. Then keep them together in a folder, and VSCode will list the content of these.

    c:\>mklink /D c:\dev\MyWork\scripts c:\ProjA\scripts
    symbolic link created for c:\dev\MyWork\scripts <<===>> c:\ProjA\scripts

    c:\>mklink /D c:\dev\MyWork\styles c:\ProjB\styles
    symbolic link created for c:\dev\MyWork\styles <<===>> c:\dev\ProjB\styles

This is very similar to @NeilShen's idea, I guess.

Answer 2

October 2017 (version 1.18):

Support for multi-root workspaces is now enabled by default in the Stable release: https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_18#_support-for-multi-root-workspaces

Now we can open multiple folders in one instance, Visual studio code has named as Workspace ("Area de Trabajo"). Take a look at the images, it´s very simple.

Answer 3

Update

As mentioned in several other answers here, this 'accepted' answer is outdated and is no longer correct. VS Code now has the concept of a 'workspace' which lets you add several 'root' folders to VS Code in the same window.

For instance, when working on a project in one folder that utilizes shared code held in a different folder, you can now open both the project folder and the shared folder in the same window.

To do this you use the Add folder to Workspace... command. VS Code then saves this configuration in a new file with a .code-workspace extension. If you double-click that file, VS Code will re-open with both folders present.

Original Accepted Answer (Outdated)

As described in The Basics of Visual Studio Code article:

"VSCode is file and folder based - you can get started immediately by opening a file or folder in VSCode."

This means the concept of solution and project files, like the .sln and .csproj, have no real function in VSCode other than that it uses these only to target and identify which language to support for Intellisense and such.

Simply put, the folder you open is the root you work with. But of course there is nothing from stopping you to open multiple windows.

As for the request features options, navigate to Help > Request Features which will redirect you to the UserVoice page of VSCode.

Answer 4

Just put your projects in the same folder and simply open that folder in vscode.

Now your projects will appear like:

GROUP OF PROJECTS

• PROJECT 1

  • Contents
  • Contents

• PROJECT 2

  • Contents
  • Contents

Answer 5

It's not possible to open a new instance of Visual Studio Code normally, neither it works if you open the new one as Administrator.

Solution: simply right click on VS Code .exe file, and click "New Window" you can open as many new windows as you want. :)

Answer 6

You can open any folder, so if your projects are in the same tree, just open the folder beneath them.

Otherwise you can open 2 instances of Code as another option