winget install --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode -e

…or download the User Installer from code.visualstudio.com (no admin needed). On the Additional Tasks screen, tick:

• Add “Open with Code” to the file and folder context menus
• Add to PATH (on by default — keep it)

In a new terminal (PATH changed — Module 3!):

PS> code --version
1.104.2
...
PS> cd C:\actuarial_work\lapse_analytics
PS> code .

code . — “open this folder in VS Code” — is how you’ll start most sessions.

Workspace Trust

The first time you open a folder, VS Code asks whether you trust its authors. For your own projects: Yes, I trust the authors. For code downloaded from strangers, choose restricted mode.

Sign in with GitHub

1. Click the Accounts icon (bottom of the activity bar)
2. Backup and Sync Settings… → Sign in with GitHub
3. Authorize in the browser window that opens

What you get

• Settings Sync: your settings, shortcuts, and extensions follow you to any PC
• Clone, publish, and open pull requests from inside VS Code
• Many AI assistants sign in through the same account

• Ctrl+` opens it — already cd’d into your project folder
• + opens another; the ⌄ next to it picks a shell (PowerShell, cmd, Git Bash)
• Split (Ctrl+Shift+5) to run Jupyter on one side, Git on the other
• Right-click a terminal tab to rename or change color
• 🗑 Kill stops the shell and anything running in it; ✕ merely hides the panel

• Gutter marks beside line numbers: green = added, blue = modified, red ▸ = deleted
• Timeline (bottom of Explorer): every commit that touched the current file
• “Initialize Repository” button appears for folders without Git

1. Ctrl+Shift+X → search by name
2. Check the publisher and download count
3. Install; some ask you to reload
4. Read its Feature Contributions tab for settings and commands

Or from the terminal, by ID:

code --install-extension ms-python.python
code --list-extensions

A community extension that brings uv into the editor:

• Command Palette entries for common uv tasks — add/remove packages, sync, run
• Helpers for editing pyproject.toml
• Saves switching to the terminal for routine package management

Install: Extensions view → search “UV Toolkit” → check the publisher → Install. Then type uv in the Command Palette to see what it offers.

Ruff (by Astral, makers of uv) does two jobs, very fast:

• Lint: flags likely bugs — unused imports, undefined names, shadowed variables
• Format: rewrites code into one consistent style, so nobody argues about spacing

Extension: charliermarsh.ruff. Squiggles appear as you type; formatting runs on save (with our settings.json).

# pyproject.toml — project-wide rules
[tool.ruff]
line-length = 88

[tool.ruff.lint]
select = ["E", "F", "I"]   # style, bugs, imports

# Before saving
import pandas as pd, numpy as np
import os
rates={'yr1':0.12,'yr2' : 0.10}
def avg(x) : return sum(x)/len(x)

# After saving: imports sorted & split, code formatted.
# Ruff still underlines all 3 imports: F401 "imported but unused"
import os

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

rates = {"yr1": 0.12, "yr2": 0.10}


def avg(x):
    return sum(x) / len(x)

Also on the CLI: uv add --dev ruff, then uv run ruff check . and uv run ruff format .

lapse_analytics\
├── .vscode\
│   ├── settings.json     workspace settings
│   └── extensions.json   recommended extensions
├── pyproject.toml        + [tool.ruff]
└── …

{
  "recommendations": [
    "ms-python.python",
    "ms-toolsai.jupyter",
    "charliermarsh.ruff"
  ]
}

• Commit .vscode\settings.json and extensions.json
• A colleague who clones the repo and runs code . gets a prompt: “Install recommended extensions?”
• With Ruff rules in pyproject.toml, everyone’s code is checked the same way — in the editor and on the CLI