Add an option to disable the "What's new" tab

[philippludwig]

When this extension is updated, it automatically opens a tab to display news - would it be possible to add an option to disable this behaviour?

I just want to set bookmarks, please don't disturb my work.

[alefragnani]

Hi @philippludwig ,

Thank you for your suggestion, but I'll keep the current approach for now. Don't worry, the "What's New" window will appear only on new releases. This is not a nag window.

Hope this helps

[philippludwig]

For anyone else with this problem, the solution is to use click the cog wheel in the extension list, select "Install another version" and pick any older version. This will cause VSCode to disable auto updates for this extension and therefore this annoying tab.

[kankaristo]

Please reopen this, you could add an option for not showing the "What's new" windows, like you can do in GitLens with "gitlens.showWhatsNewAfterUpgrades": false.

[felixjb]

Hi guys,

VSCode itself has an option for that now. Just add the following config to your user settings:

"update.showReleaseNotes": false

[skoshy]

@felixjb I believe that's just for VSCode's release notes, not for other extensions.

@alefragnani Please consider reopening this and adding an option, seeing the What's new page pop up as it did today is jarring and unwanted for me personally.

[geraldcombs]

Don't worry, the "What's New" window will appear only on new releases. This is not a nag window.

This sort of assumes that I only have one VS Code window open. In my case, every time there's a new Bookmarks release I get blasted with "What's New" tabs in the multiple VS Code windows that are open on my laptop, my desktop, my Windows VM, etc. It is really, truly annoying and I hope that you will reconsider reopening this bug.

[philippludwig]

Interesting that this issue still has not been resolved - personally I stopped using this extension long ago because of this.

[MaffooBristol]

This is not a nag window.

Yes it is.

[skoshy]

@alefragnani Again the What's New popup has shown up today. Please give us the option to disable this, it's interruptive to my workflow.

[fade2gray]

Wouldn't it work for you all to just disable Extensions: Auto Update?

[skoshy]

Wouldn't it work for you all to just disable Extensions: Auto Update?

I don't want to disable updates to all of my extensions, just the What's New popup for this extension. No other extensions I have do this (except GitLens, but they have an option to disable it, gitlens.showWhatsNewAfterUpgrades).

[alefragnani]

I'm sorry to hear this feature bothers some of you so much, but if you like the extension the way it is today, and do not want to receive new features, you have only one alternative. As commented above, you can use the Install Another Version option, and choose any older version, and VS Code will no longer update the extension.

But, if you want to receive the cool features, most of them, requested by you the users, and that I developed in my spare time, the What's New window is the way you will know about it.

This window only appears on new releases, which doesn’t happen more than once a month, so in the end, it is less frequent than VS Code itself.

I’m thinking on how to minimize its appearance across multiple windows, as pointed out here, but not disabling .

Hope this helps

[LukeOrdelmans]

The issue (for me at least) is that several extension started doing this, so much that I had to click away an annoying/useless tab every time I started vscode.
I almost deinstalled vscode, but then decided just to drop al extensions that have this behavior without an option to disable it.
sidenote: I think vscode should provide a global setting to dissallow/block extensions from auto-opening tabs (i'll check if i can put in a feature request).

[LukeOrdelmans]

upstream feature request added: microsoft/vscode#112494

[KapitanOczywisty]

@alefragnani You are owner so you may do what you want, but I've just removed your extension.

you can use the Install Another Version option, and choose any older version, and VS Code will no longer update the extension.

and disable auto-updates for all extensions, which aren't annoying

the What's New window is the way you will know about it.

If somebody needs certain feature he'll know, others do not care. I don't even read these tabs. Did you even read changelog to see what new and exciting features you're adding and telling everybody about? People literally couldn't wait for them any longer.

This window only appears on new releases, which doesn’t happen more than once a month, so in the end, it is less frequent than VS Code itself.

With VS Code Remote development, What's new will appear on every machine and sometimes even after restart will appear again. This is deal breaker in my case.

---

I appreciate you're work, but open source is not a place for adware.

[alefragnani]

I’m planning to minimize it’s frequency, but it is not going away. I’ve created two issues on my vscode-whats-new submodule (which handles the whole What’s New experience), based on feedbacks:

• Avoid displaying the webview on every opened VS Code instance ([FEATURE] - Avoid displaying the webview on every opened VS Code instance vscode-whats-new#10)
• Avoid displaying the webview while running on Codespaces and/or installed on remotes ([FEATURE] - Avoid displaying the webview while running on Codespaces vscode-whats-new#23)

As I said, the idea of this window is to display the new features. The above scenarios wouldn’t change the original idea, but fix these behaviors.

[alefragnani]

@KapitanOczywisty ,

and disable auto-updates for all extensions, which aren't annoying

Installing another version from one extension, doesn’t affect how update works for other extensions. If it doesn't work for you, you should open an issue on VS Code itself.

Hope this helps

[KapitanOczywisty]

Installing another version from one extension, doesn’t affect how update works for other extensions.

Unless they changed this recently, when new version is published, then even extension with specified version is updated. To prevent this I had to check disable auto-updates. There are other options like install extension from vsix, but It's not worth the effort, especially when using VS Code Remote Development. You should be well aware that people which would disable "what's new" windows, don't even read that, this is only for pure annoyance.

[ghost]

@KapitanOczywisty lol yeah, I have literally never read one sentence of the Bookmarks "What's New" page.

[xtqqczze]

@alefragnani In order to avoid more duplicates such as #632, please reopen this issue.

[Sundava]

@alefragnani I fail to see why we absolutely need to see this, especially on a whole new tab ?
Most extension do a small notification on the bottom-left side of the screen, which is enough for me to know I can check the changelog if I want to.

That would both allow users to be notified of new features, and not interrupt their work at the same time, can you consider this ?

[NatoBoram]

@LukeOrdelmans upstream feature request is now there:

• What's new icon/UI for extensions (and future API) microsoft/vscode#102139

It's disheartening that this issue is so old yet closed unresolved, but that just speaks to the culture that the extension's maintainer wants to push to the VSCode ecosystem; a culture where pop-up advertisement interrupt your work routinely because "Wouldn't it work for you all to just disable Extensions: Auto Update?" and "it is less frequent than VS Code itself" (which is an excuse, not a reason) (I have 91 extensions, if all of them did that then it would be way more frequent than VSCode itself).

But it's fine. The right approach is to uninstall the extension. There's other extensions that are just as free, just as open source, just as thanklessly maintained and that don't do that.

[roshal]

What's New in Bookmarks

this annoying tab in every window of which we have dozens open

a lot of work to carefully read and close each one

excellent mechanics

[philippludwig]

Kinda funny how this issue is still going strong, and nobody just forked the Extension and maintains a fork without this feature (its licensed under the GPL after all).

Personally, I don't use VSCode anymore, but I still receive E-Mails and notifications about this.