Unusually, one fine afternoon, I was facing issues with opening my VSCode editor and I faced the followinge error when I tried code . on my project directory:

[0830/101630.031:FATAL:v8_initializer.cc(527)] Error loading V8 startup snapshot file

I didn't really understand what might have caused it but after reading this issue raised on GitHub, I realized that occurred due to a corrupted update while I was shutting down my PC (Good job, Windows! :facepalm:)

If you're are lucky enough, here's how you can get it back to work:

  1. Go C:\Users\XXX\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code directory
  2. If you spot a folder titled _, copy the contents and paste it in the VS Code directly
  3. Try starting your editor again

The following steps worked out for me and if it worked out for you, that's great! Else, you'll have to re-install your editor all over again, which means you might have to re-install your extensions and re-configure it again (if you haven't taken a backup of it).

Hope this helps you out!