VS Code not able to start after latest update due to special characters in path

[adiessl]

Issue Type: Bug

After updating VS Code to the latest version (1.27.0) I was unable to get it to start properly.

Starting via command line with the verbose flag shows the following error message:

PS C:\Users\a.dießl> code --verbose

Error: Failed opening file C:\Users\a.dießl\AppData\Roaming\Code\logs\20180906T083348\main.log for writing: No such file or directory
    at new RotatingLogger (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\node_modules.asar\spdlog\index.js:16:3)
    at Object.t.createSpdLogService (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:231:857)
    at C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:547:639
    at Object.v [as _notify] (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:85:807)
    at Object.enter (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:89:85)
    at n.Class.derive._oncancel._run (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:90:932)
    at n.Class.derive._oncancel._completed (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:90:373)
    at Server.<anonymous> (C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\code\electron-main\main.js:174:783)
    at Object.onceWrapper (events.js:313:30)
    at emitNone (events.js:106:13)
    at Server.emit (events.js:208:7)
    at emitListeningNT (net.js:1378:10)
    at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:135:11)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:180:9)
[main 8:33:48 AM] Starting VS Code
[main 8:33:48 AM] from: c:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app

The reason for this seems to be that the path contains a "special" character, in my case the German letter ß (a.dießl should be a.dießl). If I start VS Code via code --user-data-dir C:\vscode everything works as expected. This bug is present in VS Code after either using the system installer or the user installer.

How to reproduce the problem? Maybe create a test folder containing special characters (e.g. C:\téßt) and open VS Code via code --user-data-dir C:\téßt.

---

VS Code version: Code 1.27.0 (7b9afc4, 2018-09-05T05:29:44.670Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.17134

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7500 CPU @ 3.40GHz (4 x 3408)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled checker_imaging: disabled_off flash_3d: enabled flash_stage3d: enabled flash_stage3d_baseline: enabled gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on native_gpu_memory_buffers: disabled_software rasterization: enabled video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled
Memory (System)	23.89GB (15.93GB free)
Process Argv	C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe --user-data-dir C:\vscode
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions: none

[vscodebot]

(Experimental duplicate detection)
Thanks for submitting this issue. Please also check if it is already covered by an existing one, like:

• Debugging my extension: Cannot find modul '...\out\extension' (#57668)
• VSCode won't launch on Windows if path contains # character (#56506)
• Error: Promise did not implement oncancel (#55136)
• Breadcrumbs with new settings editor results in empty window after restart (#54451)
• All Output window logging fails when the user name has non-ASCII characters on Windows (#55900)

[jibsen]

Same problem here, my user name contains the Danish character 'ø'.

Is there a way to download the previous version?

[adiessl]

As a workaround you could start VS Code with the --user-data-dir flag. You can even add it to the shortcut like so:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Visual Studio Code

[muhammedtas]

Same here!

[joaomoreno]

/duplicate #57982

Download 1.26.1 from here:

• Windows User Setup x64
• Windows System Setup x64
• Windows Archive x64
• Windows User Setup x64
• Windows System Setup x64
• Windows Archive x64

[vscodebot]

Thanks for creating this issue! We figured it's covering the same as another one we already have. Thus, we closed this one as a duplicate. You can search for existing issues here. See also our issue reporting guidelines.

Happy Coding!