Bulk Extension Remover

Bulk cleanup for installed Visual Studio Code extensions, with dry-run previews and protected-extension guardrails.

Preview

Features

• Lists installed, non-built-in extensions.
• Filters by display name, publisher, description, or extension id.
• Supports selecting multiple visible extensions.
• Protects important extensions from bulk removal.
• Supports dry runs that preview removals without uninstalling anything.
• Confirms before uninstalling.
• Runs uninstall actions sequentially with cancellable progress feedback.
• Shows per-run success, pending-restart, skipped, and failed counts.
• Supports retrying failed removals.
• Explains common dependency-related uninstall failures in plain language.
• Opens VS Code's native restart screen when removed extensions require a restart.

Usage

1. Open the Bulk Extension Remover activity bar icon.
2. Search or filter the installed extension list.
3. Protect anything that should never be removed in a batch.
4. Use Dry Run to preview the cleanup without uninstalling anything.
5. Select extensions and click Uninstall Selected.

Development

This project follows the common Microsoft VS Code extension sample layout:

• src/extension.ts handles activation.
• src/view/ handles webview setup and HTML generation.
• src/domain/ contains testable extension-list, uninstall-plan, and failure-message logic.
• src/shared/ contains message contracts.
• media/ contains webview CSS, JavaScript, and icons.
• out/ contains compiled JavaScript and is generated by TypeScript.

Install dependencies and compile:

npm install
npm run compile

Launch the Extension Development Host:

npm run watch

Then press F5 in VS Code.

Tests

Run the fast contributor checks:

npm run compile
npm run lint
npm run test:unit

Run the VS Code Extension Host smoke tests:

npm run test:integration

CI runs compile, lint, unit tests, integration tests, and packaging on pull requests and pushes to main or master.

Packaging

npm run package

The command creates a .vsix package that can be installed from VS Code with Extensions: Install from VSIX....

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.

Security and Privacy

• This extension intentionally does not add telemetry.
• Built-in extensions are excluded.
• The extension excludes itself from the uninstall list.
• Security-sensitive changes should follow SECURITY.md.