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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?

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Not sure why the simplest solution is not mentioned. You can simply do File>New Window and open the other project in the new window.

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9 Comments

It does not allow search through all directories
@YuriS.Cherkasov this answers the above question. you may want to add that as a separate question or tell everybody else how to do that. this for sure should have been the accepted answer
Because after you close VSCODE and launch it again it opens only one of these two windows. But with workspace you keep both.
The new workspace option is nice but it require more mental observation about what you are doing, what files you are working on (same file name in two root folders even though vsc will show which is which, you still have to be mindful of picking the right one), opening terminals to one or more root folders, etc. I have used it for awhile and I think opening a new window is better if you want to projects open at the same time and you are not interested to copy/pasting code between the two, etc. For me, the mental juggling of what is going on is too much.
This is not what OP asked. He asked how to open multiple projects in a SINGLE instance, not multiple windows. Although I agree multiple windows is better, this does not answer the question.
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286

Update

This is now available out of the box as of October 2017. From the blog post:

This was our #1 feature request - it's been a while coming but it's here now.

The complete documentation is here.

You can work with multiple project folders in Visual Studio Code with multi-root workspaces. This can be very helpful when you are working on several related projects at one time. For example, you might have a repository with a product's documentation which you like to keep current when you update the product source code.

Original answer

Currently the Insider channel of VSCode gives us this out of the box.

Multi root workspace in vscode

Read more from the blog post.

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1 Comment

New to VS Code from decades of Eclipse... what would make this so much better would be a simple lock/unlock in the Explorer next to each root folder that would quickly close all of its editors and block its content from searches. I like keeping several related projects in the same workspace specifically for checking diffs between them, but usually I don't want all of them being searched at once as they share a lot of code and I have to be extra careful which one I'm editing.
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Update

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 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.

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6 Comments

If you use a root folder as a container of your project folders, then you lose the git reference for each project because it only looks in the root folder for the git setup files.
How we can get currently opened file's project folder path in vs code extension.js ?
I would like to open (1) multiple workspaces in multiple windows. This is different than the following: (2) multiple workspaces, same window, (3) multiple folders, same workspace.
Personally I find this very confusing. What exactly is meant by sharing root folders? I want to open two separate projects in a single instance of VSC but I don't want sharing. And I certainly don't want compiling one project to suddenly include the code from the other project in it or vice versa. Seems rather confusing.
@AndroidDev I believe VS Code was a bit different, and at least very much more limited, in 2015. But you're right, looking today years later there are simpler solutions, like @Jay Wick's great answer.
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Support for multi-root workspaces is now enabled by default in the latest stable release [November 2017 release].

The File > Add Folder to Workspace command brings up an Open Folder dialog to select the new folder.

enter image description here

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24

If you are using unix like OS, you can create a soft link to your target folder.

E.g. I want to see golang source while I am using VSCode. So, I create a soft link to go/src under my project folder.

ln -s /usr/local/go/src gosrc

Hope this helps!

Update: 11/28, 2017

Multi Root Workspaces[0] landed in the stable build, finally. https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_18#_support-for-multi-root-workspaces

[0] https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/396

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You can do this in windows using MKLINK command: mklink /prefix link_path file/folder_path
multi-root workspaces are great, but symlinks are required when you must refer to those files from within your current "folder" which you cannot do with multi-root workspaces. for example in a javascript import statement, this gives you a "real" path the module resolver can access.
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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

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12

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.

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11

Multiple Folders in VS

Click ->File ->Add Folder to Workplace.

Step 1.

enter image description here

Choose which project to work ->Add(press)

Step 2.

enter image description here

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9

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.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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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
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2 Comments

Its not a solution in most cases. Technically, GROUP OF PROJECTS become a read project in this case.
How to get currently opened file's project folder path?
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You can install the Open Folder Context Menus for VS Code extension from Chris Dias

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=chrisdias.vscode-opennewinstance

  • Restart Visual Studio Code
  • Right click a folder and select "Open New Workbench Here"

Open New Workbench Here

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Or you can just select multiple folders and then click open.

Go to File> Open Folder, then select multiple folders you want to open and click Select Folder

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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. :)

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You can simply add folders in your workspace by clicking: File -> Add Folder to Workspace and choose as many folders as you want in your VScode workspace.

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1

You can open up to 3 files in the same view by pressing [CTRL] + [^]

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1

What I suggest for now is to create symlinks in a folder, since VSCode isn't supporting that feature.

First, make a folder called whatever you'd like it to be.

$ mkdir random_project_folder
$ cd random_project_folder
$ ln -s /path/to/folder1/you/want/to/open folder1
$ ln -s /path/to/folder2/you/want/to/open folder2
$ ln -s /path/to/folder3/you/want/to/open folder3
$ code .

And you'll see your folders in the same VSCode window.

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you can create a workspace and put folders in that : File > save workspace as and drag and drop your folders in saved workspace

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Had a similar problem trying to keep my "Lessons Learned" github current, as I would figure something out working on a project. After bouncing around various posts, and creating multiple workspaces, I currently just go Window-->New Tab, and open away Hope that helps.

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Ok dont know if this is still active or not, but now there is an option of adding folder to the existing workspace. File > Add Folder to Workspace

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You can use this extension known as Project Manager

In this the projects are saved in a file projects.json, just save the project and by pressing Shift + Alt + P you can see the list of all your saved projects, from there you can easily switch your projects.

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To run one project at a time in same solution

Open Solution explorer window -> Open Solution for Project -> Right click on it -> Select Properties from drop down list (Alt+Enter)-> Common Properties -> select Startup Project you will see "current selection,single selection and multiple selection from that select "Current Selection" this will help you to run one project at a time in same solution workspace having different coding.

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0

You can use the terminal via code command to open multi folder workspace:

code <folder1> <folder2> <folder3>

Above command will launch a new VSCode window with 3 folders.

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