Students can't install Extensions in Visual Studio Code

We are a school and would like to use Visual Studio Code together with the Omnisharp extension.

The students' working environment has the following characteristics Server-stored home directories

• Active Directory environment Samba 4.x is used as Active Directory
• domain controller Students do not have write access to C:\
• Extensions are provided locally as a .vsix file
• Access to the Marketplace is not permitted
• --extensions-dir=H:\vscode\ext is used to redirect the extension directory to the student's server-stored home directory when starting Visual Studio Code.

Unfortunately, students can't install an extension (.vsix). The following error appears:

[2021-12-06 11:20:42.962] [renderer1] [error] ["Extract: EEXIST: file already exists, mkdir 'H:\\vscode\\extensions\\.819a7632-05f1-4909-b81c-aaf7c669f02b\\.debugger\\cs'","    at s.extractAtLocation (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/sharedProcess/sharedProcessMain.js:76:188875)","    at async s.extractUserExtension (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/sharedProcess/sharedProcessMain.js:76:185594)","    at async q.extract (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/sharedProcess/sharedProcessMain.js:76:198974)","    at async q.doRun (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/sharedProcess/sharedProcessMain.js:76:199612)"]
[2021-12-06 11:20:42.988] [renderer1] [error] EEXIST: file already exists, mkdir 'H:\vscode\extensions\.819a7632-05f1-4909-b81c-aaf7c669f02b\.debugger\cs': Extract: EEXIST: file already exists, mkdir 'H:\vscode\extensions\.819a7632-05f1-4909-b81c-aaf7c669f02b\.debugger\cs'
    at s.extractAtLocation (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/sharedProcess/sharedProcessMain.js:76:188875)
    at async s.extractUserExtension (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/sharedProcess/sharedProcessMain.js:76:185594)
    at async q.extract (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/sharedProcess/sharedProcessMain.js:76:198974)
    at async q.doRun (vscode-file://vscode-app/c:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20VS%20Code/resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-browser/sharedProcess/sharedProcessMain.js:76:199612)

This behaviour cannot be easily reproduced in another active directory domain. Does anyone know anything about this error message?

You have probably installed Visual Studio Code with system installer mode, or a administrative mode, instead of user installer mode, or non administrative mode. So students don't have access to the Program files folder to install addons. Reinstall Visual Studio Code so it installs in user's profile.

See this for further explanation.

You can use this silent install command:

VSCodeSetup.exe /VERYSILENT /MERGETASKS=!runcode /NORESTART /CURRENTUSER