feat(blog): add post introducing vscwhere (#33)

Author: CalvinAllen

src/content/blog/2026/introducing-vscwhere/cover.png

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+---
+title: "Introducing vscwhere!"
+date: "2026-01-08T12:00:00-05:00"
+categories: [rust, cli, vscode]
+description: "A CLI tool for locating Visual Studio Code installations on Windows, inspired by Microsoft's vswhere"
+---
+
+If you've ever used Microsoft's [vswhere](https://github.com/microsoft/vswhere), you know how handy it is. Need to find where Visual Studio is installed? Run `vswhere`. Need the path for a CI/CD script? `vswhere -latest -property installationPath`. It just works.
+
+But what if you need to find Visual Studio *Code* instead?
+
+So I built it.
+
+## Introducing vscwhere
+
+**vscwhere** is a CLI tool that locates Visual Studio Code installations on Windows. Think of it as vswhere's little sibling — same idea, same familiar interface, just for VS Code instead of Visual Studio.
+
+Need to find all your VS Code installations? Just run:
+
+```bash
+vscwhere
+```
+
+That's it. You'll get a list of all the VS Code installations on your machine — Stable and Insiders builds alike.
+
+## The Options
+
+If you're familiar with vswhere, you'll feel right at home:
+
+```
+Options:
+  -all            Find all instances (default)
+  -prerelease     Include prerelease (Insiders) builds
+  -latest         Return only the latest version
+  -format <type>  Output format: text (default), json
+  -property <name> Return value of specified property
+  -nologo         Suppress version banner
+  -sort           Sort instances by version (descending)
+  -help, -?       Display this help message
+```
+
+Need JSON for your build scripts? `-format json`. Just want the latest stable version's path? `-latest -property installationPath`. Need to include Insiders builds? `-prerelease`.
+
+## Example Output
+
+Here's what it looks like in action. Running `vscwhere` with no arguments:
+
+```
+> vscwhere
+VSCWhere version 0.1.0
+
+installationPath: C:\Users\calvin.allen\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\
+installationVersion: 1.107.1
+productPath: C:\Users\calvin.allen\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe
+productId: stable
+isPrerelease: false
+displayName: Visual Studio Code
+extensionsPath: C:\Users\calvin.allen\.vscode\extensions
+userDataPath: C:\Users\calvin.allen\AppData\Roaming\Code
+```
+
+And with `-format json`:
+
+```
+> vscwhere -format json
+VSCWhere version 0.1.0
+
+[
+  {
+    "installationPath": "C:\\Users\\calvin.allen\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Microsoft VS Code\\",
+    "installationVersion": "1.107.1",
+    "productPath": "C:\\Users\\calvin.allen\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Microsoft VS Code\\Code.exe",
+    "productId": "stable",
+    "isPrerelease": false,
+    "displayName": "Visual Studio Code",
+    "extensionsPath": "C:\\Users\\calvin.allen\\.vscode\\extensions",
+    "userDataPath": "C:\\Users\\calvin.allen\\AppData\\Roaming\\Code"
+  }
+]
+```
+
+Also, the most important for workflows, `-nologo` (and combine it with JSON output):
+
+```
+> vscwhere -nologo -format json
+[
+  {
+    "installationPath": "C:\\Users\\calvin.allen\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Microsoft VS Code\\",
+    "installationVersion": "1.107.1",
+    "productPath": "C:\\Users\\calvin.allen\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Microsoft VS Code\\Code.exe",
+    "productId": "stable",
+    "isPrerelease": false,
+    "displayName": "Visual Studio Code",
+    "extensionsPath": "C:\\Users\\calvin.allen\\.vscode\\extensions",
+    "userDataPath": "C:\\Users\\calvin.allen\\AppData\\Roaming\\Code"
+  }
+]
+```
+
+## How Does It Work?
+
+Here's where it gets a little unusual. VS Code doesn't write any special registry keys when it's installed — there's no convenient "here's where I live" entry to read. The *only* registry presence VS Code has is its uninstall entries.
+
+So that's what vscwhere uses. It finds the uninstall entries in the Windows Registry and works backwards to determine the actual installation directory. It's a reliable way to find installations regardless of where the user chose to install them — and really, it's the only way without resorting to scanning the entire filesystem.
+
+## Why Rust?
+
+Executable size. That's it. A .NET trimmed, single-file binary clocked in at 12MB. The Rust version? Under 1MB. For a simple CLI tool that finds VS Code installations, 12MB felt absurd. Rust gives me a tiny, dependency-free binary that's fast and easy to distribute. No runtime dependencies, no installers — just download the executable and run it.
+
+## Current Limitations
+
+A few things to note:
+
+- **Windows only** — macOS and Linux support may come later, but for now it's Windows-focused
+- **No portable installations** — it finds Stable and Insiders builds installed the normal way, but won't detect portable VS Code installations
+
+## Get It
+
+vscwhere is available from GitHub releases. Grab the latest binary and drop it somewhere in your PATH:
+
+[github.com/CodingWithCalvin/vscwhere](https://github.com/CodingWithCalvin/vscwhere)
+
+This is an early release — version 0.1.0 — so there's plenty of room for improvement. If you've got ideas or run into issues, let me know!
+
+As always, I accept pull requests :)