If you use vscode on multiple systems, can’t install the application system wide, want to have multiple versions or to have a default starting point for extensions & settings, portable mode can be useful.
Download the version suitable for your system, create the user directory (data on Windows & Linux, code-portable-data on macOS) next the executable and it’s ready for use. You might need to disable macOS quarantine mode for portable mode to work with the following command: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine Visual\ Studio\ Code.app
On Windows & Linux:
|- VSCode-win32-x64-1.25.0-insider
| |- Code.exe (or code executable)
| |- data
| |- ...
On macOS:
|- Visual Studio Code.app
|- code-portable-data