# Forced to use juliaup: not cool

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837>\
**Category:** VS Code\
**Tags:** juliaup\
**Created:** [January 2, 2026, 4:09am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837 "2026-01-02T04:09:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PetrKryslUCSD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/petrkryslucsd/32/215825_2.png) [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 4:09am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/1 "2026-01-02T04:09:51Z")

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The new version of vscode Julia extension does not pick up the julia.exe in the path, but rather insists on using juliaup to install (some version of) it. Not very nice. I mean, I have the whole thing set up with a place for the depot etc. and that goes out the window. I am not sure where to inquire as to how to go back to something less intrusive. So, if you are listening, please do tell. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![jling](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jling/32/212909_2.png) [@jling](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jling)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 6:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/2 "2026-01-02T06:08:55Z")

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> [@PetrKryslUCSD](#):
>
> I am not sure where to inquire as to how to go back to something less intrusive.

It also sounds like a bug, so maybe open an issue at: [GitHub - julia-vscode/julia-vscode: Julia extension for Visual Studio Code](https://github.com/julia-vscode/julia-vscode)

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**Author:** ![RoyiAvital](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/royiavital/32/571_2.png) [@RoyiAvital](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/RoyiAvital)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 6:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/3 "2026-01-02T06:26:51Z")

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They changed the logic.  
It i s not enough anymore to have just `julia.exe` in path.  
It means the latest updates just break fully working configuration which just had `julia.exe` in path.

I find this to be a wrong choice.  
Choosing to promote a tool which makes sense to developers over a _regular use_.

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**Author:** ![Maucejo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/maucejo/32/39090_2.png) [@Maucejo](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Maucejo)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 8:09am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/4 "2026-01-02T08:09:15Z")

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Although I understand your frustration, I don’t understand why some people are against `juliaup`. I have read some thread about this and the supposed difficulty of installing julia on Windows.

To me, downloading the Julia installer, creating an environment variable to access `julia` everywhere or downloading juliaup installer and typing in a terminal `juliaup add` is equally “difficult”.

I may miss something and I really want to understand why recommending people installing julia from juliaup is a bad thing or a bad choice.

In Python, managing installation is a nightmare if you don’t want to pollute your OS. You have to create an environnement, etc. That is why, I now use `uv`, which is basically `juliaup + Pkg`.

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**Author:** ![pfitzseb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pfitzseb/32/45566_2.png) [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 10:59am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/5 "2026-01-02T10:59:44Z")

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This should only be happening if the `julia.executablePath` setting is completely empty.  
In that case we nudge you towards either using juliaup or _explicitly_ referencing a binary there (including a simple `julia` or `julia.exe`).

If this is happening when the setting is not empty, then please open an issue and include details for your setup.

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**Author:** ![RoyiAvital](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/royiavital/32/571_2.png) [@RoyiAvital](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/RoyiAvital)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 11:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/6 "2026-01-02T11:40:24Z")

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> [@Maucejo](#):
>
> Although I understand your frustration, I don’t understand why some people are against `juliaup`. I have read some thread about this and the supposed difficulty of installing julia on Windows.

Actually I’d argue it is the easiest on Window.

1. Unzip the Zip file to whenever you want (Say `MyJulia`).
2. Add the path of `MyJulia\bin` to path either permanently or per terminal session.
3. Launch any application which is `julia.exe` dependent.

This easiness created many cases where people built a _Portable Julia_.

The last update of the extension changed that specific logic.  
In past time, it would conclude if `julia.exe` is on path and use that.  
The update require you to specify it explicitly.  
Until you specify it, it keeps recommending `juliaup`.  
This cause currently working configurations to stop working by updating the VS Code extension.  
Not only that the user previous configuration stops working, suddenly you get messages about changing the way the user works.

I’d be happy to hear the logic in this change. If it was the policy to begin with, I might see it. But breaking working configuration. I’d assume there is a good motivation for that.

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 11:52am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/7 "2026-01-02T11:52:52Z")

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Pleeeease revert that.

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 11:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/8 "2026-01-02T11:55:16Z")

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> [@Maucejo](#):
>
> Although I understand your frustration, I don’t understand why some people are against `juliaup`.

Other than the reasons mentioned by Roy, I’ll add,

I want to stay with Julia 1.10 and I don’t want to fight with the system to be able to do that.

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**Author:** ![GunnarFarneback](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/gunnarfarneback/32/1827_2.png) [@GunnarFarneback](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GunnarFarneback)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 12:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/9 "2026-01-02T12:13:42Z")

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> [@joa-quim](#):
>
> I want to stay with Julia 1.10 and I don’t want to fight with the system to be able to do that.

You mean this fight?

```julia-auto
juliaup add 1.10
juliaup default 1.10

```

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**Author:** ![pfitzseb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/pfitzseb/32/45566_2.png) [@pfitzseb](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/pfitzseb)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/11 "2026-01-02T13:14:21Z")

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Putting `julia`/`julia.exe` into the `julia.executablePath` setting should fully recover the previous behaviour. If it doesn’t, open an issue.

I get that changes in default behaviour are annoying, but this is fixable with a click and five keystrokes starting from the modal popup.

That said,

> <https://github.com/julia-vscode/julia-vscode/pull/3961>

may fix the issue, but needs a some more testing before I’m comfortable merging it.

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**Author:** ![PetrKryslUCSD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/petrkryslucsd/32/215825_2.png) [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 3:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/12 "2026-01-02T15:38:21Z")

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Thanks for considering an easier way of keeping the old behaviour!

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/5/8/585b7dbbf2c5809e09652285c2f75d0e00b84b03.png)  
The option to configure the path is indeed here. But the default is juliaup.  
(Since, in my case, julia.exe IS on the PATH at this point, the dialog is really unnecessary,  
it would seem?)

Don’t get me wrong, I think `juliaup` is a great tool. But I set up my environment in a different way, one which I want to keep.

As always, I want to say how much I appreciate the effort that went into (and is still being put into) the Julia extension for VSCode!

Cheers.

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**Author:** ![PetrKryslUCSD](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/petrkryslucsd/32/215825_2.png) [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 3:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/13 "2026-01-02T15:51:09Z")

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Btw: some logic must have changed. I don’t see the button in the status bar that used to indicate that the LS was aware of the current environment. In fact the LS hover help that used to work does not work anymore (e.g. LinearAlgebra functions are not recognized).  
 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/optimized/3X/f/3/f3fc74b75ae307d4f79b0f04dd4085cb0088389f_2_690x24.png)  
I did

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/9/e/9e9eea7328c78b1d3b181fc742c5954f98c04b7b.png)  
but  
 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/a/b/ab337ef8dc1bed7908fe2184399568d2d3d2975b.png)

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**Author:** ![mbauman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mbauman/32/31082_2.png) [@mbauman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mbauman)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/14 "2026-01-02T16:57:12Z")

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A post was split to a new topic: [Why is juliaup emphasized as the installation mechanism?](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/why-is-juliaup-emphasized-as-the-installation-mechanism/134844)

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 6:47pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/15 "2026-01-02T18:47:49Z")

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Yes, that and my strange stubbornness that in my computer I like to decide where software is installed. And I hate software installed under hidden directories.

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**Author:** ![mkitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mkitti/32/12459_2.png) [@mkitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mkitti)\
**Post date:** [January 2, 2026, 6:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/16 "2026-01-02T18:55:47Z")

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Could that be resolved by setting the [`JULIAUP_DEPOT_PATH`](https://github.com/JuliaLang/juliaup?tab=readme-ov-file#path-used-by-juliaup)?

> [@PSA: Breaking change how juliaup interacts with JULIA\_DEPOT\_PATH](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/psa-breaking-change-how-juliaup-interacts-with-julia-depot-path/106497):
>
> This is a short note that I am about to push a breaking update for Juliaup to everyone that changes how Juliaup interacts with JULIA\_DEPOT\_PATH. This is a pretty esoteric topic, so for most users of Juliaup, it is probably entirely safe to ignore this slight_smile The short version is that from now on one should use the JULIAUP\_DEPOT\_PATH environmental variable to configure into which depot Juliaup will put its configuration. Previously one could change that via the JULIA\_DEPOT\_PATH environme…

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**Author:** ![marteaua](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/marteaua/32/214927_2.png) [@marteaua](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/marteaua)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 5:55am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/17 "2026-01-04T05:55:23Z")

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I am working on NixOS, I didn’t try but I strongly suspect that using Juliaup is not an option for me!

Just before going on Christmas holidays, my julia repl in VSCode broke, although I tried to set the julia executable path (I didn’t investigate much). I’ll try to repair this week using the info of this thread..

Update 05/01: everything works again now (I just have `julia.executablePath` set, without quotes “”).

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**Author:** ![islent](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/islent/32/11326_2.png) [@islent](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/islent)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 6:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/18 "2026-01-04T06:37:49Z")

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I found a solution (Windows 11):  
in previous versions of the VSCode plugin (\<= 1.158.2), I set `julia.executablePath` containing double quotes;

```julia-auto
"D:\Programs\julia-1.12.3\bin\julia.exe"

```

in the latest version (\>1.158.2), these double quotes need to be removed for the plugin to correctly locate the Julia executable.

```julia-auto
D:\Programs\julia-1.12.3\bin\julia.exe

```

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**Author:** ![lmiq](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lmiq/32/18314_2.png) [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 9:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/19 "2026-01-04T09:48:15Z")

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If this is reproducible probably you should create an issue in the extension github, because that is likely an easy fix, and support for quotes there is probably wanted.

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**Author:** ![islent](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/islent/32/11326_2.png) [@islent](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/islent)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 12:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/20 "2026-01-04T12:05:39Z")

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Agreed. Has anyone else solved the “Julia not installed” issue using this approach?

> [@islent](#):
>
> double quotes need to be removed for the plugin to correctly locate the Julia executable.
> 
> ```julia-auto
> D:\Programs\julia-1.12.3\bin\julia.exe
> 
> ```

If so, I’ll file an issue on GitHub.

Update, I’ve created an issue:

> <https://github.com/julia-vscode/julia-vscode/issues/3967>
>
> After updating to the latest VS Code Julia extension (version \>1.158.2), the ext…ension fails to locate the Julia executable when the \`julia.executablePath\` setting contains double quotes, and throws \`"Julia is not installed"\`. This is a regression from previous versions (\<=1.158.2) where quotes were allowed and often used, especially on Windows.
> 
> To reproduce:
> On Windows (version \>1.158.2), set the \`julia.executablePath\` to a quoted string, e.g., \`"D:\\Programs\\julia-1.12.3\\bin\\julia.exe"\` instead of \`D:\\Programs\\julia-1.12.3\\bin\\julia.exe\`
> 
> See discourse discussions \[Forced to use juliaup: not cool\](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837)
> 
> I've found some issues that might be related:
> \- https://github.com/julia-vscode/julia-vscode/issues/3965

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**Author:** ![misterjordan845](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@misterjordan845](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/misterjordan845)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 10:27am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837/21 "2026-01-10T10:27:21Z")

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You can still use your existing Julia installation and avoid juliaup. Open VS Code settings, find **Julia: Executable Path** , and manually set it to the full path of your `julia.exe` (for example `C:\Julia-1.10.0\bin\julia.exe`), then restart VS Code. This forces the extension to use your current setup and depot. If it keeps insisting on juliaup, downgrade the Julia VS Code extension to an older version and turn off auto-updates.

[Next page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/forced-to-use-juliaup-not-cool/134837.md?page=2)