Microsoft releases Visual Studio Code 1.124 with smarter autonomous AI agents

The 1.124 update for VS Code enables Autopilot by default, introduces parallel background sessions, and upgrades the integrated browser.

Microsoft has just released Visual Studio Code 1.124 with a focus on faster agent workflows and improved agent autonomy. Microsoft outlined the following features as the key items in this update:

• Autopilot: Autopilot, enabled by default, is now smarter to determine when a task is truly done.
• Background sessions: Quickly send a request in the background and keep composing the next session.
• Session navigation: Search, jump, and step through agent sessions with the keyboard.
• Browser history: Revisit and search pages you've already opened in the integrated browser.

With VS Code 1.124, Microsoft has enabled Autopilot by default. For those that don’t know, Autopilot is a chat permission level that you can pick to give agents permission to take initiative and act autonomously, without needing explicit user approval for each action.

Also related to Autopilot, Microsoft introduced Advanced Autopilot, which changes how Autopilot decides when to keep iterating and when to finish. This helps you get more complete results without manually monitoring loops. This feature works using a small utility model that reads a transcript of the chat and decides when the task is done.

Another new feature in 1.124 is the Agents window, which lets you easily explore, iterate on, and review agent sessions across projects and machines. Previously, starting a new agent session meant waiting for it to load before you could compose the next one. With this update, sessions can be requested in the background.

This VS Code update also brings session navigation updates to switch between them more quickly. The update also lets you reload or reopen the Agents window so that it no longer loses your layout, so you will land back where you left off.

If you use the integrated browser in VS Code, you will notice that it now retains the history of visited pages. Suggestions will now show when typing in the URL bar and can be managed by using Ctrl+H within a browser tab. The browser now also lets you customize the toolbar more; just right-click on the toolbar area to the right of the URL input. Finally, the browser has faster agentic text entry.

Another improvement is experimental enterprise-managed Copilot plugin policies that allow admins to centrally control which chat plugins and plugin marketplaces are available to developers.

If you have VS Code installed, 1.124 should install automatically, or you'll get a prompt. If you don't have it installed, get it here.

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Posted Thursday 11 June 2026 at 7:40 am AEST (my time).

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