How to set which extensions are enabled when opening a new folder or workspace?

Question

I have a great many extensions, and on any given project, I find myself using maybe a third of all of them (If I'm working on a Python project, I don't really need JavaScript-related extensions now do I?). The problem is that right now VS Code loads and enables every single extension installed at the start of each new project. I find it a pain to then have to manually go and disable all the extensions I won't be needing for the project.

Is there a way to setup VS Code to only enable certain extensions when opening a new folder / workspace? I couldn't find anything in the docs on that subject and when looking at the extension section of the preferences I couldn't find such a functionality.

Answer 1

As of Feb 2023, it is now possible to create different Profiles in VS Code.

A Profile can include extensions, settings, keyboard shortcuts, UI state, tasks, and user snippets. You can customize VS Code for different development scenarios like data science, documentation writing, or for multiple programming languages like Python or Java. If you have different VS Code setups based on workflow such as "Work" or "Demo", you can also save those as different profiles. You can open multiple workspaces (folders) with different profiles applied simultaneously.

The following image demonstrates a folder opened with a Work profile that is customized for a work setup.