What ESP_Roland said.
Using the installer is the easiest way to get it working.
It tried following the step by step installation on the espressif website, and it caused a lot of headaches.
The installer sets up everything for you.

I've been using VS code already for about 2 months. I am running on a lyrat-mini, and I was very skeptic about the setup. To my surprise the esp_idf extension works like a charm. I just had to set the default installation (express) and compile one of the examples. The extension already comes with al...