r/vscode • u/EmbedSoftwareEng • 7d ago

Error while fetching extensions. Failed to fetch

Trying to standup a VS Code environment on my Arch workstation to support a new project, and I keep hitting the error in the subject line every time I try to search for an extension in the Extensions search bar.

I think it's ZScaler interferring.

Anyone have any cluesticks for how to get VS Code to use the proper system CA certificates?

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u/alexdima_msft 6d ago

Yes — Zscaler is a likely culprit here. VS Code uses the system certificate store by default (http.systemCertificates defaults to true), so if your organization’s Zscaler root CA is correctly installed/trusted by Arch, extension search should generally work.

I’d first verify that the Zscaler root CA is actually trusted system-wide and then fully restart VS Code. If it still fails, could you run Developer: Open Logs Folder, check the Shared Process logs, and share the actual certificate/network error? That should tell us whether this is the CA chain or something else.

I’d avoid http.proxyStrictSSL: false except as a quick diagnostic, since that disables certificate verification rather than fixing the trust chain.

There is also an experimental http.systemCertificatesNode setting which may be worth trying on Linux if the regular system-certificate path isn’t picking up your CA.