Integrating Developer PowerShell into Visual Studio Code

To build projects using the MSVC compiler (cl.exe), CMake, and Ninja directly from the Visual Studio Code interface, you need to add the Visual Studio environment profiles to the built-in terminal.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Open the settings.json configuration file:
   • Press Ctrl + Shift + P.
   • Type Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON) into the search bar and press Enter.
2. Add the profile configuration:
   Insert the following block of settings inside the main curly braces { … } of your settings.json file:

"terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
    "Developer PowerShell (x64)": {
        "source": "PowerShell",
        "overrideName": true,
        "args": [
            "-NoExit",
            "-Command",
            "& { Import-Module 'C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Community\\Common7\\Tools\\Microsoft.VisualStudio.DevShell.dll'; Enter-VsDevShell 43240475 -SkipAutomaticLocation -DevCmdArguments '-arch=x64' }"
        ]
    },
    "Developer PowerShell (x86)": {
        "path": "C:\\Windows\\SysWOW64\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe",
        "overrideName": true,
        "args": [
            "-NoExit",
            "-Command",
            "& { Import-Module 'C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\Community\\Common7\\Tools\\Microsoft.VisualStudio.DevShell.dll'; Enter-VsDevShell 43240475 -SkipAutomaticLocation }"
        ]
    }
}

(Note: The paths are specified for a standard Visual Studio 2022 Community installation. If you are using Professional or Enterprise editions, replace Community in the paths with the corresponding name).

3. Apply the settings:
   • Save the settings.json file.
   • Close active terminal sessions in VS Code using the trash can icon (Kill Terminal) in the terminal panel to refresh the profile list.
4. Launch the terminals:
   • Click the arrow next to the “plus” sign in the upper-right corner of the terminal panel.
   • Select the required architecture from the dropdown list: Developer PowerShell (x64) or Developer PowerShell (x86).