You’re SSH’d into a production server at 2 AM. Something’s broken. You need to edit a config file.

So you open it in nano. Or vim if you’re feeling confident. You make your changes, fat-finger the save command, accidentally overwrite half the file, and spend the next twenty minutes undoing the damage. By the time you’ve fixed the original issue, you’ve created two new ones.

Sound familiar?

Here’s the thing: terminal editors aren’t badges of honor. They’re tools. And for most IT work—editing configs, writing scripts, managing infrastructure—there are better tools available. Visual Studio Code has quietly become the de facto editor for system administrators, DevOps engineers, and IT professionals who actually want to get work done.

This isn’t about being “not technical enough” for vim. It’s about choosing the right tool for the job. And for infrastructure work in 2026, VS Code offers capabilities that terminal editors simply can’t match.

The Problem With How IT Pros Edit Files

Let’s be honest about the workflows most IT professionals actually use:

The local-edit-and-upload dance. You download a config file via SFTP, edit it locally, upload it back, realize you forgot to check permissions, download it again, fix it, upload it again. Rinse and repeat for every change.

The “I’ll just use nano real quick” trap. Every nano session that was supposed to take two minutes turns into fifteen. No syntax highlighting. No search across files. No undo history you can actually navigate. No auto-complete. Just you, a blinking cursor, and hope.

The copy-paste chaos. You’ve got scripts scattered across twelve servers. You make a change to one, then realize you need to make the same change to the others. But wait—did each server have slight variations? Better SSH into each one individually and check.

The “works on my machine” reality. You write a PowerShell script on your Windows workstation, transfer it to a server, and it breaks because of encoding issues or path differences. Now you’re debugging not the logic, but the environment.

These aren’t edge cases. They’re daily frustrations for IT professionals who haven’t optimized their tooling. And they add up to hours of wasted time every week.

Why VS Code Actually Works for Infrastructure

VS Code isn’t just “a nice editor.” It’s a platform that solves specific problems IT professionals face daily. Here’s what actually matters:

Remote SSH: Edit Server Files Like They’re Local

This is the killer feature for sysadmins. The Remote - SSH extension lets you open any folder on any remote server—and work with it exactly as if it were local.

No downloading files. No uploading them back. No sync conflicts. You open the file, edit it, save it, and it’s done. On the server. Immediately.

Even better: VS Code’s full feature set works on those remote files. Syntax highlighting, IntelliSense, search across the entire project, integrated terminal that runs commands on the remote machine. Everything.

The setup takes five minutes:

  1. Install the Remote - SSH extension
  2. Press Ctrl+Shift+P, type “Remote-SSH: Connect to Host”
  3. Enter your SSH connection string (user@hostname)
  4. Authenticate
  5. Open any folder on that server

That’s it. You now have a full-featured IDE connected to a remote machine through an encrypted SSH tunnel.

If you’re managing multiple servers—and you probably are—you can configure them in your SSH config file and access them all from VS Code’s Remote Explorer. One click to connect. No remembering hostnames or key paths.

For jump hosts and bastion servers (common in enterprise environments), VS Code handles ProxyJump configurations without extra setup. Configure it once in ~/.ssh/config, and VS Code automatically routes through your bastion.

PowerShell and Bash Integration That Actually Works

VS Code’s PowerShell extension isn’t just syntax highlighting—it’s a full debugging environment. Set breakpoints. Step through code line by line. Inspect variable values mid-execution. Watch expressions. All the debugging tools you’d expect from a “real” programming language.

For Bash scripting, the ShellCheck extension analyzes your scripts in real-time and catches errors before you run them. Ever spent an hour debugging a script only to find a missing quote? ShellCheck would have flagged it immediately.

The integrated terminal is context-aware. When you’re editing a file on a remote server via Remote SSH, the terminal runs commands on that remote server. When you’re editing local files, it runs locally. No switching windows or maintaining separate SSH sessions.

You can run multiple terminals simultaneously—one connected to your test server, one to production, one local. Split them, tile them, switch between them instantly.

Infrastructure as Code Support

If you’re working with Terraform, Ansible, or any IaC tool, VS Code offers extensions that understand your code:

HashiCorp Terraform - Syntax highlighting, auto-completion for resources and variables, format-on-save, and navigation to resource definitions. It understands your provider schemas and suggests valid options.

Ansible - YAML validation, playbook auto-completion, and Jinja2 template support. It knows the difference between a valid Ansible module and a typo.

YAML - For Kubernetes manifests, Docker Compose files, CI/CD configs—the YAML extension provides schema validation. It tells you when your indentation is wrong before kubectl does.

Docker - Build images, manage containers, and view logs without leaving VS Code. If you’re just getting started with containers, our Docker for beginners guide covers the fundamentals. The extension also provides IntelliSense for Dockerfiles.

These aren’t just convenience features. They catch errors at write-time instead of deploy-time. That matters when you’re modifying infrastructure that could take down services if you get it wrong.

The Extensions That Actually Matter

There are thousands of VS Code extensions. Most IT pros need about ten. Here’s the actual essentials:

Must-Have for Everyone

GitLens - Shows who changed every line of code and when. Invaluable when you inherit someone else’s scripts and need to understand why something was done a certain way. If you’re already using Git for configuration management, this makes it ten times more useful.

Remote - SSH - Already covered, but worth repeating. This is non-negotiable for anyone managing servers.

Error Lens - Displays errors and warnings inline, right next to the offending code. No more hovering over red squiggles to see what’s wrong.

For Scripting and Automation

PowerShell - Full debugging, IntelliSense, and the PowerShell Integrated Console.

ShellCheck - Static analysis for Bash scripts. Catches bugs you didn’t know you were writing.

shell-format - Auto-formats shell scripts to consistent style. Handles POSIX, Bash, and even Dockerfiles.

For Infrastructure Work

YAML - Schema validation and auto-complete. Essential for Kubernetes, Ansible, and any modern infrastructure tool.

HashiCorp Terraform - Auto-complete, validation, and navigation for Terraform files.

Docker - Build, manage, and debug containers directly.

KICS - Security scanning for IaC. Catches misconfigurations in Terraform, Kubernetes, Ansible, and more before you deploy them.

For Quality of Life

Bracket Pair Colorization - Built into VS Code now, but make sure it’s enabled. Makes nested JSON and YAML infinitely more readable.

Trailing Spaces - Highlights and removes trailing whitespace. Prevents weird YAML parsing errors.

Thunder Client - REST API testing without leaving VS Code. Useful for testing webhooks, APIs, and automation integrations.

Don’t install everything at once. Start with Remote SSH, your primary scripting language extension, and GitLens. Add more as you identify specific needs.

Setting Up VS Code for IT Work

Here’s a practical setup process that gets you productive quickly:

Initial Configuration

After installing VS Code, open Settings (Ctrl+,) and configure these essentials:

{
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.renderWhitespace": "boundary",
  "editor.wordWrap": "on",
  "files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true,
  "files.insertFinalNewline": true,
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "PowerShell",
  "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "bash"
}

These settings auto-format your code on save, show problematic whitespace (critical for YAML), and ensure files end with newlines (expected by most Unix tools).

Remote SSH Configuration

For managing multiple servers, create or edit ~/.ssh/config:

Host webserver-prod
    HostName 192.168.1.100
    User admin
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/prod_key

Host webserver-staging
    HostName 192.168.1.101
    User admin
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/staging_key

Host db-server
    HostName 192.168.1.50
    User dba
    ProxyJump bastion

Once configured, these hosts appear in VS Code’s Remote Explorer. One click to connect, full VS Code capabilities on the remote server.

If you’re new to SSH configuration, our SSH configuration guide covers key-based authentication, jump hosts, and security best practices in detail.

Workspace Organization

VS Code workspaces let you group related folders—even across different servers. Create a workspace file (infrastructure.code-workspace) that includes:

{
  "folders": [
    {
      "path": "C:\\Scripts\\Production"
    },
    {
      "path": "C:\\Scripts\\Automation"
    }
  ],
  "settings": {
    "files.associations": {
      "*.conf": "ini",
      "*.cfg": "ini"
    }
  }
}

Open the workspace, and all your folders appear in the sidebar. Search works across all of them. Replace across files works across all of them.

Real Workflows: VS Code in Action

Theory is fine, but here’s how this actually looks in practice:

Scenario: Updating Configs Across Multiple Servers

Old way: SSH to server one, edit the file, note the change, SSH to server two, make the same change, repeat until done, hope you didn’t miss one.

VS Code way: Connect to each server via Remote SSH in separate windows. Use multi-cursor editing or search-and-replace to make consistent changes. Save all simultaneously. Done.

Even better: Store your configs in Git, make changes once, and deploy with automation. VS Code makes the Git workflow natural—staged changes, commits, and push are all built in.

Scenario: Debugging a Script at 2 AM

Old way: Add print statements everywhere, run the script, check the output, add more print statements, repeat until you find the bug.

VS Code way: Set a breakpoint on the suspicious line. Run the script in debug mode. Step through execution, inspect variables, watch expressions change in real-time. Find the bug in minutes, not hours.

This works for Python, PowerShell, and with the right extensions, most scripting languages. The time saved on a single debugging session can justify the VS Code learning curve.

Scenario: Writing Infrastructure as Code

You’re creating a Terraform configuration. In nano, you’d be typing resource names from memory and checking documentation constantly.

In VS Code with the Terraform extension: Type aws_ and see every AWS resource available. Select aws_instance, and it populates the required attributes. Tab between fields, get documentation on hover, see validation errors before you run terraform plan.

The same applies to Ansible, Kubernetes manifests, and Docker Compose files. Schema-aware extensions know what’s valid and help you write correct code the first time.

Common Objections (and Why They’re Mostly Wrong)

“Real sysadmins use vim”

Real sysadmins use whatever gets the job done efficiently. Vim is powerful for quick edits and works when nothing else is available. But for substantial work—writing automation, managing infrastructure as code, debugging scripts—VS Code offers capabilities vim doesn’t have.

Keep vim skills for emergencies. Use VS Code for daily work.

”VS Code is too heavy for servers”

You don’t run VS Code on servers. The Remote SSH extension runs a lightweight VS Code Server on the remote machine (about 200MB). Your full VS Code runs locally. The server only handles file system operations and extension execution.

If your servers can handle this (and they almost certainly can), you get full local-quality editing with remote file access.

”I don’t want to learn another tool”

Fair. But consider: how much time do you spend fighting nano or vim? How often do you make typos in YAML indentation? How many hours have you lost debugging scripts without proper tools?

The VS Code learning curve is shallow. The basics work like any other editor. Advanced features come as you need them. A few hours of practice yield months of productivity gains.

”It’s Microsoft software”

VS Code is open source (MIT licensed). The codebase is on GitHub. You can audit it. You can build it yourself. Microsoft develops it, but the community contributes significantly.

If you’re concerned about telemetry, it can be disabled. Or use VSCodium, a community build with telemetry stripped out entirely.

VS Code Alternatives Worth Knowing

VS Code isn’t the only option. Depending on your needs, alternatives might fit better:

JetBrains Fleet - A lighter IDE from JetBrains with remote development capabilities. Still evolving, but worth watching if you prefer JetBrains tools.

Neovim with modern plugins - If you’re committed to terminal-based editing, Neovim with LSP support, Telescope, and other plugins approaches VS Code’s capabilities. The learning curve is steeper, but it’s genuinely powerful once configured.

Zed - A newer editor built for speed. Not as feature-rich as VS Code yet, but extremely fast and worth trying.

Sublime Text - Still fast, still capable, still paid. Remote editing support isn’t as smooth as VS Code, but it’s a solid choice for local work.

For most IT professionals, VS Code hits the right balance of capability, performance, and ecosystem support. But knowing alternatives exist helps you choose the right tool for specific situations.

Building Skills Around Your Editor

Learning VS Code is part of a broader toolkit. The editor is more powerful when combined with:

Strong scripting fundamentals. VS Code makes Bash and PowerShell easier to write, but you still need to know the languages.

Version control habits. VS Code’s Git integration works well, but understanding Git itself makes it actually useful.

Command line proficiency. The integrated terminal is powerful, but you need solid command line skills to use it effectively. Platforms like Shell Samurai offer interactive practice that builds muscle memory for real terminal work.

Infrastructure as code knowledge. Extensions make writing Terraform and Ansible easier, but you need to understand what you’re writing.

The editor is a multiplier. It makes existing skills more effective. But it can’t replace the skills themselves. (If you’re still building those skills, setting up a home lab gives you a safe environment to practice.)

Getting Started: A Practical Path

Here’s a sensible progression for adopting VS Code as an IT professional:

Week 1: Basic setup. Install VS Code, configure the settings mentioned earlier, install Remote SSH and your primary scripting language extension. Connect to one frequently-used server and edit some files.

Week 2: Extend your workflow. Install GitLens. Start using the integrated terminal. Try the search and replace across files. Create an SSH config for your regular servers.

Week 3: Dive deeper. Add IaC extensions if you’re using Terraform or Ansible. Try the debugger on a script you’re developing. Create a workspace for a project.

Week 4: Optimize. Learn keyboard shortcuts for your most common actions. Configure snippets for boilerplate code. Remove extensions you’re not using.

Don’t try to learn everything at once. Let VS Code become part of your workflow gradually. The features you need will become obvious as you use it.

What’s Next in VS Code for IT

VS Code continues to evolve. Recent updates have focused on AI integration with GitHub Copilot and multi-agent development capabilities. While AI coding assistants are worth exploring, the core features—remote editing, debugging, IaC support—remain the foundation.

If you’re looking to grow into DevOps or cloud engineering, VS Code proficiency is essentially expected. It’s become the standard editor for infrastructure work, and comfort with it signals modern practices.

But ultimately, the editor isn’t the point. The point is being effective at your job. If VS Code helps you do that—and for most IT professionals, it will—then it’s worth the investment to learn it well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can VS Code replace PuTTY/MobaXterm for server management?

For file editing and terminal access, largely yes. The Remote SSH extension provides terminal access alongside editing capabilities. However, tools like MobaXterm offer additional features like X11 forwarding, multi-exec across sessions, and built-in file transfer that VS Code doesn’t replicate directly. Many IT pros use both: VS Code for development and detailed editing, MobaXterm or similar for quick multi-server operations.

Does VS Code work with Windows Server environments?

Yes. The PowerShell extension works well for Windows Server management, and Remote SSH works with Windows servers running OpenSSH (included in Windows Server 2019 and later). For older Windows servers without OpenSSH, you’d need to either install OpenSSH or use VS Code locally with mapped network drives.

How much memory does VS Code use?

Typical usage ranges from 300MB to 1GB depending on extensions and open files. For the Remote SSH server component that runs on remote machines, expect about 200MB. This is heavier than terminal editors but reasonable for modern systems. If memory is constrained, disable unused extensions and close unused tabs.

Is VS Code secure for editing production configs?

The Remote SSH connection uses standard SSH encryption—as secure as your regular SSH connections. Locally stored settings don’t include passwords (use SSH keys). The main security concern is the same as any editor: ensuring you’re connecting to the right server and not accidentally saving changes to production when you meant staging. Workspace organization and careful SSH config naming help here.

Should I completely abandon terminal editors?

No. Keep basic vim or nano skills for emergencies—when you’re in a recovery environment, connected through a console without graphical forwarding, or on a system where VS Code Server can’t run. Terminal editors remain valuable for quick, one-off edits. VS Code is for sustained development work, not every edit.