What’s New in Visual Studio Code 1.124
Hot on the heels of the feature-packed 1.123 release that debuted at Microsoft Build 2026, Visual Studio Code 1.124 lands on June 5 with a focused set of refinements. This isn’t about new headline features — it’s about making the agent-first workflow introduced in 1.123 usable at scale for power users and enterprise teams.
Here’s what landed and why it matters.
WSL Support in the Agents Window — A Game Changer for Windows/Linux Developers
The most significant change in 1.124 is WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) connection support in the Agents Window (#307568). Developers working in Linux environments from Windows can now use the full Agents window experience with their WSL projects — side-by-side sessions, pinned views, the terminal, files, and changes views all following the active agent session.
What this means: For the many enterprise developers who use WSL for Linux-native development — working with Linux toolchains, apt/brew package managers, or Linux-specific runtimes — agents are no longer limited to the Windows context. A developer can have one agent session working with Windows-native tooling and another simultaneously connected to their WSL environment, all from the same Agents window.
Enterprise impact: Organizations deploying VSCode on Windows 365 Cloud PCs or Intune-managed devices with WSL now get a unified agent experience. This is especially relevant for .NET developers who target Linux containers or Azure-hosted Linux workloads — a common pattern in modern enterprise architectures.
Agents Window Gets Power-User Love
Scoped Chat History (June 4)
When running multiple agent sessions side-by-side — a capability introduced in 1.123 — pressing Up/Down in the chat input now only navigates prompts from the current session (#319341). This eliminates what would have been a major source of confusion: accidentally pulling up a prompt from a different agent session and sending it to the wrong context.
Multi-Chat for Local Sessions
Local sessions in the Agents window now support multiple chat conversations within a single session (#319602). This is foundational for complex workflows where you want to explore multiple approaches without losing context — think refactoring a service layer while simultaneously researching a library upgrade, all within the same session.
Background Send (Alt+Enter)
Press Alt+Enter or Alt-click Send to dispatch an agent task without navigating into that session (#319598). The agent runs in the background while you immediately compose your next message. This is a small change with outsized ergonomic impact — it keeps developers in flow instead of waiting for each agent turn to complete before composing the next prompt.
Keyboard Navigation and Bulk Close
Power users get important keyboard shortcuts (#319596):
- Ctrl+1–Ctrl+9 (Cmd+1–Cmd+9): Focus sessions by grid position
- Ctrl+K Ctrl+W (Cmd+K Ctrl+W): Close all sessions at once
For developers managing 3-5+ agent sessions for complex refactoring or investigation tasks, these shortcuts are a meaningful productivity gain.
Integrated Browser URL History
The integrated browser’s address bar now supports Up/Down arrow navigation through previously visited URLs (#303767). It’s a basic browser feature, but its absence was a friction point for developers who use the integrated browser as their primary documentation and reference tool. Combined with the favorite pages feature from 1.123, the integrated browser is becoming genuinely usable as a daily workspace.
Customizable Browser Toolbar
The integrated browser toolbar is now customizable — show or hide individual toolbar actions via the right-click context menu (#320016, #318437). IT teams can standardize the browser toolbar for compliance or training purposes, hiding unnecessary actions while keeping the core navigation and screenshot tools visible.
Small Improvements with Big Impact
Create Folder in Simple File Dialog
A seemingly minor change that solves a real workflow friction: you can now create a new folder directly from the simple file picker (#318768). No more alt-tabbing to File Explorer or switching to the full dialog just to create a directory.
Regex Flags for Folding Markers
Language extension authors gain more flexibility with folding markers. The language-configuration.json folding patterns now support a { pattern, flags } object form, enabling flags like case-insensitive matching (#72989). This enables better folding support for languages that use case-insensitive region markers.
What Has NOT Changed
- Copilot pricing and licensing remain the same
- No new AI model integrations beyond the 1M-token context support from 1.123
- Extension API is fully backward compatible
- Session Sync / Chronicle from 1.123 continues unchanged
- All 1.123 security features (delayed extension updates, sandbox retry) remain in effect
What Organizations Should Do
Test WSL agents with your Linux development workflows. If your team uses WSL for container development, Linux toolchains, or cross-platform .NET development, 1.124’s WSL agent support is worth evaluating immediately. Verify that your WSL distributions and toolchains are compatible.
Train power users on keyboard navigation. Ctrl+1–9 for session focus and Ctrl+K Ctrl+W for bulk close are easy wins. Share these shortcuts with teams already using the Agents window.
Enable background send as a default workflow. Alt+Enter changes the agent interaction model from sequential to parallel. Encourage developers to fire off background agent tasks and continue composing — this is where the multi-session Agents window design really pays off.
Review browser toolbar customization. For IT teams deploying VSCode at scale, the customizable toolbar allows you to strip down the integrated browser to only what’s needed — reducing visual clutter and support questions.
The Bigger Picture
VSCode 1.124 is a polish release — and that’s actually an important signal. Microsoft invested heavily in 1.123’s foundational features (Session Sync, Research Agent, 1M-token context windows), and 1.124 shows they’re committed to making those features ergonomic enough for daily use. The keyboard shortcuts, scoped history, and background send aren’t glamorous, but they’re exactly the kind of UX work that separates a platform feature from a productivity tool.
The WSL agent support is particularly noteworthy. It signals that Microsoft sees the agent workflow as cross-platform by design — not just a Windows-on-Windows experience. For organizations running hybrid Windows/Linux development environments (which is most enterprises these days), this removes a key adoption barrier.
As VSCode’s agent capabilities mature, the question shifts from “Can agents help?” to “How do we integrate agents into our development process safely and effectively?” 1.124’s refinements make that integration easier.
Ready to optimize your developer tooling at scale? Big Hat Group helps organizations standardize and deploy VSCode with Intune, Windows 365, and GitHub Copilot — from pilot to enterprise-wide rollout. Contact us to discuss your developer productivity strategy.
Big Hat Group is a Microsoft partner specializing in modern endpoint management, Windows 365, and developer productivity tooling.