Apps
VS Code
VS Code stores several Chromium and Electron caches to speed up its UI, webviews, extensions, and GPU-accelerated rendering. These include HTTP-style web cache files in Cache_Data, V8 bytecode in Code Cache and CachedData, GPU shader and resource data in GPUCache, downloaded extension VSIX archives in CachedExtensionVSIXs, and rotating diagnostic logs. Kudu removes only these disposable caches and logs so VS Code can rebuild them cleanly without touching your projects, settings, extensions you already installed, accounts, or saved credentials.
Why it matters
Why clean VS Code?
- Invalidated V8 bytecode in Code Cache or CachedData after a VS Code or Electron update can make the first launch unusually slow while startup code recompiles
- Corrupted Cache_Data entries used by webviews and the workbench can leave extension panes blank, show broken sign-in pages, or cause repeated loading spinners
- Stale GPUCache data from an older graphics driver can conflict with the current driver and show up as black windows, flickering panels, or laggy animations
- Downloaded VSIX archives in CachedExtensionVSIXs accumulate after extension installs and updates, wasting disk space even though the installed extensions themselves are stored elsewhere
- Large logs folders grow quickly when an extension crashes or the extension host repeatedly restarts, and users notice excessive disk usage plus many timestamped log directories
- Bad cached extension runtime data can make an extension activation fail once, then work again only after VS Code rebuilds its cache on the next launch
What gets cleaned
Cache paths Kudu targets
Windows
%AppData%/Code/Cache/Cache_Data |
%AppData%/Code/Code Cache |
%AppData%/Code/GPUCache |
%AppData%/Code/CachedData |
%AppData%/Code/CachedExtensions |
%AppData%/Code/CachedExtensionVSIXs |
%AppData%/Code/logs |
macOS
~/Library/Application Support/Code/Cache/Cache_Data |
~/Library/Application Support/Code/Code Cache |
~/Library/Application Support/Code/GPUCache |
~/Library/Application Support/Code/logs |
~/Library/Application Support/Code/CachedExtensionVSIXs |
~/Library/Application Support/Code/CachedData |
Linux
~/.config/Code/Cache/Cache_Data |
~/.config/Code/Code Cache |
~/.config/Code/GPUCache |
~/.config/Code/logs |
~/.config/Code/CachedExtensionVSIXs |
~/.config/Code/CachedData |
Frequently asked
Common questions about VS Code
Related cleaners
Free & open source
Download Kudu and reclaim your disk space.
Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. No account required, no feature gates, no telemetry without consent. All cleaning targets are open source and community-auditable.