10 VS Code Extensions That Just Make Your Computer Slower

10 VS Code Extensions That Just Make Your Computer Slower

We’ve all been there. You start with a fresh VS Code installation, lean and mean. Then you read that “10 Must-Have VS Code Extensions for JavaScript Developers” article, and before you know it, your editor takes longer to start up than it takes to brew a pot of coffee.

Let’s look at some extensions we all enthusiastically install, only to wonder why our fans are spinning at full speed while trying to edit a simple text file.

The VS Code Extension Impact Simulator

Before we dive into the worst offenders, why not experiment with your own virtual VS Code setup? See how your startup time is affected as you add more and more “essential” extensions:

1. The “I’ll Lint Everything You’ve Ever Thought About” Extension

This extension doesn’t just lint your code; it lints your comments, your commit messages, and somehow the grocery list you have open in Notepad. It also has opinions stronger than your tech lead about whether you should use tabs or spaces.

// Before linting
function doStuff() {
  const x = 5
  if(x>3) return 'hello'
}

// After linting (20 seconds later)
/**
 * Does important stuff with precision and elegance
 * @function doStuff
 * @returns {string} A carefully crafted greeting
 * @author ESLint + 17 other linters
 * @see RFC-2324 for proper greeting protocol
 */
function doStuff(): string {
  const x: number = 5;
  
  if (x > 3) {
    return 'hello';
  }
  
  return undefined;
} // This line intentionally left with a semicolon

2. The “Real-Time Collaboration” Extension

Sure, it lets your entire team edit the same file simultaneously. But at what cost? Now your VS Code is not just running your code; it’s running a full-blown social network. Complete with status indicators showing that Dave has been “typing” for the last 45 minutes without committing a single character.

3. The “AI Code Completion” Extension

This one watches you type, constantly making suggestions and using a neural network larger than your project codebase to predict what you’ll write next. Meanwhile, your CPU is screaming for mercy as it tries to figure out whether you want to type console.log() for the 500th time today.

Your laptop while coding with AI completion:
█████████████████████████████████████ CPU: 94%
█████████████████████████████████░░░░ RAM: 87%
█████████████████████████████████████ Fan Speed: MAX
█████████████████████████████████████ Battery Drain: EXTREME
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ Actual Productivity: 12%

4. The “Theme Switcher” Extension

Because nothing says “productive developer” like spending 3 hours finding the perfect shade of blue for your curly braces, then changing it again tomorrow. Each theme only adds a bit of overhead, but who stops at just one?

“I finally found a theme that perfectly matches my personality, desktop wallpaper, and coffee mug. My code still doesn’t work, but it looks amazing while failing.”

— Every developer ever

5. The “File Icons for Everything” Extension

Now every file in your project has a custom, high-resolution icon that perfectly represents its contents. Your .gitignore has a tiny image of someone sweeping things under a rug. Cute, but did we need the 24MB of SVG icons?

6. The “Preview Everything” Extension

Markdown preview? Of course. HTML preview? Naturally. CSS preview? Why not. JSON preview with collapsible nodes and syntax highlighting? Obviously essential. Real-time preview of what your application would look like if it were drawn by a 5-year-old with crayons? Sure, add that too.

7. The “Git Integration Deluxe” Extension

Because the basic Git integration wasn’t enough, this one adds inline blame annotations, history viewers, merge conflict resolution tools, and somehow a full implementation of GitHub’s UI right in your editor. Your simple text editor is now essentially running a full Git server.

8. The “Productivity Tracker” Extension

The irony of an extension that uses 30% of your CPU to tell you that you’re not being productive enough is apparently lost on its 100,000+ users.

9. The “Custom Snippet” Extension

You created this snippet for that one specific task six months ago and have never used it again, but it dutifully loads into memory every time you open VS Code, just in case today is the day.

10. The “Extension Manager” Extension

The ultimate meta extension: an extension to help you manage all your other extensions. It’s extensions all the way down, each one adding just a little more overhead until your once-nimble editor has the startup time of a 1990s Windows machine.

The Relationship Between Extensions and Startup Time

graph LR
    A[Fresh VS Code Install] -->|"+ Essential Extensions"| B[Usable Editor]
    B -->|"+ Helpful Extensions"| C[Productive Environment]
    C -->|"+ 'Just One More' Extensions"| D[Noticeable Slowdown]
    D -->|"+ 'Must-Have' Extensions"| E[Coffee Break During Startup]
    E -->|"+ 'Saw It On Twitter' Extensions"| F[VS Code is Basically an Electron OS]

So What’s The Solution?

Maybe, just maybe, we don’t need 57 extensions to write code effectively. Perhaps we could start with a more minimalist approach: the bare essentials first, then add only what truly improves your workflow.

Or you could just buy more RAM. That’s probably easier than deciding which extension to part with.

In the meantime, I’ll be over here, waiting for my VS Code to finish starting up so I can finish writing this article.