Absolute Path with one backslash not working in Vs Code

Adding copy pasted absolute paths into VS Code editor such as "C:\Users\username\Desktop\filename.txt" does not work, it throws the 'The system cannot find the file specified.' error. But instead "C:\\Users\\username\\Desktop\\filename.txt" does work. How can I make it read the copy pasted absolute path so I don't have to modify it every time?