Telemetry.enableTelemetry: False vs. Limited for Bandwidth Constraints

Answer

Setting telemetry.enableTelemetry to false stops VS Code core from sending both usage data and crash reports. First‑party extensions that rely on the built‑in telemetry infrastructure also stop their outbound requests, but extensions that implement their own telemetry may still transmit data.

To keep crash reports while disabling usage analytics, enable the dedicated crash‑reporter switch:

// settings.json
{
  "telemetry.enableTelemetry": false,
  "telemetry.enableCrashReporter": true
}

This suppresses outbound HTTP POSTs for usage events while still allowing crash‑report POSTs to Microsoft endpoints.

Confirmed facts

• When telemetry.enableTelemetry is false, VS Code does not send usage telemetry or crash reports to its telemetry endpoints.
• The telemetry.enableCrashReporter setting exists and can be toggled independently of the general telemetry switch.
• First‑party extensions that use the built‑in telemetry honor these settings; third‑party or independently instrumented extensions may bypass them.
• Local telemetry logging continues regardless of transmission setting, so events remain available in local log files for offline analysis.

Steps for this case

1. Open settings.json (User or Workspace scope).
2. Set "telemetry.enableTelemetry": false.
3. If crash reports are needed, add "telemetry.enableCrashReporter": true.
4. Save the file and restart VS Code to apply the change.
5. Optionally verify with a network‑monitoring tool (e.g., Wireshark) that outbound POSTs to vscode.telemetry.microsoft.com for usage events are absent while crash‑report POSTs may still appear.

Missing diagnostic detail

If you continue to see outbound traffic from specific first‑party extensions after applying the above settings, please confirm whether those extensions expose their own telemetry switch (often found in their settings). Knowing this will determine whether you need to adjust extension‑specific configurations or rely on network‑level filtering.