VSCode Auto Disable Extensions

Install from the VS Code Marketplace, or run ext install elpandap.auto-disable-extensions from the Quick Open (Ctrl+P).

Most of your extensions are only useful in some projects, yet VS Code loads all of them everywhere: the C# tools in your Rust repo, Python in your website. That means a slower editor, a side bar crowded with tabs you never open, extra language servers and commands, and notifications you don't care about.

Auto Disable Extensions looks at the folder you open (file types, package.json, Cargo.toml, *.csproj…) and disables, for that workspace only, the extensions it doesn't use, while keeping general-purpose ones like Git tools, themes and AI assistants.

How it works

Open a folder and you are asked whether to apply. The window reloads with only what that project needs. If the project changes (say, its first Docker file), it offers to update. Extensions you disable or re-enable yourself are respected and remembered. The ⚡ in the status bar shows why each extension is on or off, and can enable everything again.

VS Code has no public API to enable or disable other extensions, so this uses VS Code's own "Disable (Workspace)" list, written through an internal API. Changes therefore take effect after a window reload, and a future VS Code update could break it; if that happens, the extension tells you and stops changing anything.

Settings