Trying to bootstrap extensions into a portable and user/system installations into VSCode

[accesswatch]

Type: Bug

I am unclear if this is a bug and is probably just an issue of not trulyy understanding the process. In the 1.96 release notes there was a section about bootstrapping extensions into VSCode. I followed those steps but the editor did not silently install the extensions that were placed in the folder as directed. I have tried to do this for both a portable version as well as user and system installations. Can I get some clearer guidance on this path? We are building a customized VSCode installer for a group of blind and low vision students and we are highly customizing the environment, shipping extensions, adding key bindings and more. I am trying to avoid shippiing an entire extensions folder but would rather just proviide the market place files and have VSCode bootstrap them into their build.

VS Code version: Code 1.96.4 (cd4ee3b, 2025-01-16T00:16:19.038Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26120
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	AMD Ryzen 5 Microsoft Surface (R) Edition (12 x 2196)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	7.45GB (0.47GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 5a524437-3f52-4db4-af12-3ac13392aa4b
Screen Reader	yes
VM	0%

Extensions (34)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
Bookmarks	ale	13.5.0
vscode-intelephense-client	bme	1.12.6
vscode-innosetup	cho	1.9.3
vscode-markdownlint	Dav	0.58.2
prettier-vscode	esb	11.0.0
copilot	Git	1.257.0
copilot-chat	Git	0.23.2
vscode-pull-request-github	Git	0.102.0
vscode-htmlhint	HTM	1.0.5
file-history	Jef	1.0.0
vscode-dotnet-runtime	ms-	2.2.5
vscode-edge-devtools	ms-	2.1.6
black-formatter	ms-	2024.4.0
debugpy	ms-	2024.14.0
pylint	ms-	2024.0.0
python	ms-	2024.22.2
vscode-pylance	ms-	2024.12.1
vscode-python-envs	ms-	0.1.2025011501
remote-ssh	ms-	0.116.1
remote-ssh-edit	ms-	0.87.0
live-server	ms-	0.4.15
powershell	ms-	2024.4.0
remote-explorer	ms-	0.4.3
vscode-copilot-vision	ms-	0.1.1
vscode-speech	ms-	0.12.1
vsliveshare	ms-	1.0.5948
pytest-runner	pam	0.0.10
LiveServer	rit	5.7.9
partial-diff	ryu	1.4.3
markdown-preview-enhanced	shd	0.8.15
code-spell-checker	str	4.0.34
gitdoc	vsl	0.2.3
markdown-all-in-one	yzh	3.6.2
zen-mode-on-startup	zen	0.0.1

A/B Experiments

vsliv368cf:30146710
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vscod805cf:30301675
binariesv615:30325510
vsaa593:30376534
py29gd2263:31024239
c4g48928:30535728
azure-dev_surveyone:30548225
2i9eh265:30646982
962ge761:30959799
pythonnoceb:30805159
pythonmypyd1:30879173
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pythontbext0:30879054
cppperfnew:31000557
dsvsc020:30976470
pythonait:31006305
dsvsc021:30996838
dvdeprecation:31068756
dwnewjupyter:31046869
nativerepl1:31139838
pythonrstrctxt:31112756
nativeloc1:31192215
cf971741:31144450
iacca1:31171482
notype1cf:31157160
5fd0e150:31155592
dwcopilot:31170013
stablechunks:31184530
6074i472:31201624
dwoutputs:31217127