Visual Studio Code 1.100 Released! GPT-4.1 as Default & New NES Model

Visual Studio Code 1.100, the April 2025 release of Microsoft’s IDE, was released one day ago on May 8.

The new version now uses GPT-4.1 as the default base model in AI chat, though it’s a progressive roll-out feature that may not yet be available to all users.

It implemented support for OpenAI’s apply patch editing format (GPT 4.1 and o4-mini) and Anthropic’s replace string tool (Claude Sonnet 3.7 and 3.5), that results significantly faster edits, especially in large files.

Also for AI chat, the Markdown-based instructions and prompt files now have their own language IDs, configurable in the language mode dialog, allowing to use untitled documents as temporary prompt files.

And, it introduced Inline chat V2 (Preview feature), with better use of the available context and a better code-editing strategy, as well as more lightweight UX (optional).

Other Chat features include #githubRepo tool to search for code snippets in any GitHub repository that you have access to, ability to use extensions tool (#extensions) in chat to find extensions from the Marketplace, and:

Improve web page fetch tool with ability to add entire page as context.
# now also appear as an attachment pill in chat input.
Remove “Done” button from chat input box.
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+I shortcut now opens the Chat view and switches to agent mode.
add support for the new Streamable HTTP transport for MCP servers.
MCP support for image output
Create and launch tasks in agent mode (Experimental)
use built-in Simple Browser to attach UI elements as context to chat.(experimental)

Floating windows in VS Code 1.100 now get new always on top mode and Compact mode to hide certain UI elements. It as well added new commands for using keyboard shortcuts to toggle floating window modes.

VS Code floating window mode

For Linux, the IDE now enforces extension signature verification to ensure that all extensions are properly validated before installation. Though, the feature is disabled by default in Linux on ARM32 due to issue.

The new VS Code release also introduced new Next Edit Suggestions (NES) model. Which, offers improved performance, delivering suggestions with reduced latency, and offering suggestions that are less intrusive and align more closely with your recent edits.

For Python users, it added Branch coverage supported in the Testing Explorer, though coverage >= 7.7 is required.

The Python Environments extension now has Quick Create command, to create the virtual environment and install any workspace dependencies with a single click. And, when using Pylance, there’s a new experimental AI Code Action for converting string concatenations to f-string or format().

Other changes in the new IDE release include:

New setting to configure Secondary Side Bar default visibility.
Prevent installing pre-release version of the Copilot Chat extension in VS Code Stable.
your-view-id.open command to open a view without focus.
Support AI-powered keyword suggestions in semantic text search (Experimental).
Notebook Find control now supports persistent history for both the find and replace input fields.
Cell outputs are now able to be dragged into the Chat view (image and textual outputs only).
Add quick diff editor decorations for staged changes.
Add context menu support in the disassembly view.
And more! See the official release note for details.

Get Visual Studio Code 1.99

Visual Studio Code offers pre-build packages for Linux, Windows, and macOS that are available to download in its website via the link below:

VS Code Website

For Ubuntu Linux, besides downloading and installing the official deb packages, an official snap package (runs in sandbox) is available to install directly from App Center (or Ubuntu Software).