Visual Studio Code - access denied to unins000.exe

• right click program directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\MicrosoftVsCode)
• choose security tab
• allow full control for users

It seems like using the default download is built to be installed in your AppData folder. Should you want to (like me) install it in your Program Files folder, go to https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/75367 and follow the link there to https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/?dv=win64 and download the exe from there. This seems to have solved my problem.

Thank you to @Martheen

No you don't have to do all that, all you have to do is:

Right-click on VS Code > Properties > Compatibility Tab > Select Run as Administrator

Then it should be fine.

This issue happens when VS Code is trying to update in the background but cannot because it is not running as the administrator.

The workaround solution is to add the user to have Full Control on the %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Microsoft VS Code folder.

The following PowerShell script (run as Admin) can replace the user permissions temporarily and resolve the immediate issue:

$folder = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\"
$username = "$env:USERDOMAIN\$env:USERNAME"
    
$newAccessRule = New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.FileSystemAccessRule($username, "FullControl", 3, "None", "Allow")
    
$acl = Get-ACL $folder
$acl.AddAccessRule($newAccessRule)
    
Set-ACL $folder -AclObject $acl

This allows the installer/updater to continue by clicking Try Again.

Installation method

This question pertains to the per-user installation of VS Code. This is a valid installation method, and the default method.

The alternative is the Program Files-based (system-wide) installation.

Root cause?

I'm unsure why the user's permissions were lost on the folder. By default the user should have access to their own AppData directory. Something had set the permissions to Admin only (i.e. requiring elevation).

Perhaps the root cause is due to an elevated VS Code doing an update?

More discussion on https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/148953

Run it as an administrator.

It seems that VS Code had to install an update and couldn't due to permission restrictions. I simply closed VS Code and re-opened as an Administrator. I then went to Help → Check for Updates. All the updates were installed appropriately and the error was gone.

In case that doesn't work, apply the steps provided by Lars and then run as administrator.

This error also occurred to me several times, so what I did was stopped the scanning done by antivirus software. You can go to settings of your antivirus software and stop or disable scanning of apps while they download.

This error appeared after uninstalling the jshint extension, I reinstalled it but left it disabled, that's how it was solved for me.

Goto C:\Users\aarifhusain\AppData\Local\Programs

(aarifhusain is my pc user directory, On your pc, it will be different)

Right click program directory on "Microsoft Vs Code" folder

• Choose security tab

allow full control for

• Creator owner
• Authenticated users
• SYSTEM
• Administrator(AARIFHUSAIN/Administrator)
• Users(AARIFHUSAIN/Users)

Allow "full control" for everyone.

Now error Resolved successfully. Upvote this answer

On my PC when I opened directly a file or folder this error appeared... So, I renamed all 3 uninstall (below)* files and problem solved.

*(unins000.exe, unins000.dat & unins000.msg)

PC & Visual Studio Code Version:

Version: 1.68.0 (user setup) Date: 2022-06-08T11:44:16.822Z Electron: 17.4.7 Chromium: 98.0.4758.141 Node.js: 16.13.0 V8: 9.8.177.13-electron.0 OS: Windows NT x64 6.3.9600 Set on: Windows 8.1 x64-bit OS

For me, this issue occurred because I had used winget to install VS Code from an elevated command prompt. This caused the owner of the Microsoft VS Code folder to be set as the MyPC\Administrators group instead of MyPC\MyUserAccount.

Even though I am already a member of that group, I think the privileges of the administrator group don't apply unless you run the application with administrator privileges. UAC and all that.

The fix for me was uninstalling VS Code and reinstalling with winget from a standard command prompt.

You should not need to mess with permissions on the folder.