I've been having an issue with the F8 (Run Selection) feature in VSCode for the past week. After about 5-10 minutes of use, it just stops working, and instead, VSCode shows "Activating Extensions..." for a few seconds and then nothing happens. I'm still able to use the Terminal, which is fine, but it's frustrating that I can't run my selections. I'm using VSCode Tunnel, but the issue persists even when I'm not using SSH or a Tunnel. I attempted to remove the Powershell Pro Tools Extension, but that didn't solve the problem. Is this a common issue? Have I possibly messed something up?
2 Answers
Have you tried the classic fix: turning it off and on again? 😂 You could also check your keybindings.json file. Just be aware that editing this might open PowerShell in a new window instead of the integrated terminal. Here's a snippet you might want to include:
{
"key": "f8",
"command": "PowerShell.RunSelection",
"when": "editorTextFocus && editorLangId == 'powershell'"
}
I went through a similar issue before—updating or uninstalling the PowerShell extensions and making sure VSCode was updated worked for me. It can be really annoying since I rely on this feature a lot! Just keep in mind, F8 isn’t a native function in VSCode without the right extension. Good luck!
The "Activating Extensions..." message you see typically occurs when an extension loads. It’s strange if it's happening after you’ve been coding for a while. Make sure there's not an `exit` command in your code, as it could terminate execution prematurely. Try starting a new terminal session (like PowerShell 5 or 7) and see if there's any change. Good luck checking that!
Yeah, I might have an `exit` in there; I’ll take a look at it tomorrow!
I tried rolling back my PowerShell extension version, and while it stopped for a bit, it returned after a few hours. Still, that's way better than it breaking every 5-10 minutes! I think the problem might actually be with VSCode itself. I remember updating it recently, and that's when these issues started.