Why Microsoft VS Code Is Dropping Official Support for Python 3.x and What It Means for Developers

Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code Python extension has officially stopped supporting Python 3.7 and is moving toward abandoning support for the entire Python 3.x line, following the end of official support from the Python core team and Microsoft’s own policy changes.

Despite the deprecation, Python 3.7 remains widely used—about 17.2% of websites running Python 3.x still rely on it, while the already‑EOL Python 3.6 accounts for 28.9% and Python 3.8 for 23.3% of usage.

The primary reason is security: Python 3.7 reached its end‑of‑life in June 2023, and per PEP 537 no security patches will be issued after July 2023, leaving any remaining vulnerabilities unaddressed.

In addition, major third‑party libraries such as NumPy, Pandas, and Django 4 have already dropped Python 3.7 compatibility, meaning bug fixes in those projects may no longer work on that interpreter.

Python is shifting to an annual major‑version release cadence. Python 3.8’s lifecycle will end in October 2024, and VS Code’s support will cease when the next major version is released, continuing this pattern for future releases.

Microsoft states that the VS Code Python extension supports all actively maintained Python versions, with the newest stable release being Python 3.12.

The Python release process consists of a five‑month feature‑freeze period, seven months of feature development (Alpha), four months of bug‑fixing (Beta), and a final month for release, followed by one year of full support and five years of security updates.

Although Microsoft claims there is no plan to completely remove Python 3.7 from the extension, the lack of official support means no guarantees against potential issues.

New improvements include a renamed “Python Debugger” with a setting to step only through user code, a “Lint on Change” option for the Pylint extension, and expanded configuration for the Mypy type‑checker.

Python remains the most popular programming language: TIOBE ranked it first in October 2023, and Stack Overflow’s 2023 survey placed it third overall, ahead of many compiled languages.

Recent surveys show 93% of developers use Python 3, with 45% on Python 3.10 (released two years ago) and only 2% on versions older than 3.5; 21% use Python exclusively at work, 51% both professionally and personally, and 5% consider it their primary language.

Given its rapid growth, Python 3.13 is slated for release next year, and developers still on older versions are urged to upgrade soon.