title: Change VSCode User Settings location
body: <p>I want to put my User Settings file under version control, preferably a separate folder, but I can't find the option to tell VSCode where my settings file is located.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to change the location that Visual Studio Code looks for the <code>settings.json</code> file?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Update:</strong></p>
  
  <p>Since there does not seem to be a easy way to change the default location of the user settings file, besides passing the command line arguments as in <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/44575963/4050456">this</a> answer, I went with a different approach.</p>
  
  <p>I created a git repository which contains all of my dotfiles, settings-files, etc. and put my <code>settings.json</code> there. This repository is cloned somewhere on the development partition of my hard drive. I then created a Symlink using the <code>mklink.exe</code> tool (I am on Windows) to the settings file in my repository in the default user settings directory (<code>path-to-user/AppData/Roaming/Code/User/</code> on Windows). The only drawback is that you can't move the repository, or change its layout without having to recreate the link.</p>
  
  <p>Changing the Symlink to a Hardlink is not advised as explained in <a href="https://codingkilledthecat.wordpress.com/2012/08/08/git-dotfiles-and-hardlinks/" rel="noreferrer">this</a> blog-post. Also Hardlinks seem to mess up the timestamps on Windows, so you won't see any changes made to <code>settings.json</code> from within VSCode. The Symlink seems to be working tho.</p>