⛔ 100% CPU on Windows when a watched file is deleted #287800

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

Version: 1.108.0 (user setup)
Commit: 94e8ae2
Date: 2026-01-08T13:53:10.781Z
Electron: 39.2.7
ElectronBuildId: 12953945
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

I wrote about it in #263718, but couldn't get the team to reopen the issue. tl;dr if a watched file is deleted, then ReadDirectoryChangesW is called in an infinite loop, causing 100% CPU. Happened several times for me.

Steps to Reproduce:

• Open a project with .vscode\settings.json on windows
• Open that file in notepad
• Every time it's changed and saved in notepad, ReadDirectoryChangesW is called for the path 2 times by the utility service
• Now remove .vscode folder
• Change and save in notepad again, vscode utility process start calling ReadDirectoryChangesW in an infinite loop.