title: Cannot activate rust-analyzer: bootstrap error
body: <p>Starting 2020-12-09, VSCode's Rust Analyzer extension no longer loads for me. On launch, it prints out this error message:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>Cannot activate rust-analyzer: bootstrap error. See the logs in &quot;OUTPUT &gt; Rust Analyzer Client&quot; (should open automatically). To enable verbose logs use { &quot;rust-analyzer.trace.extension&quot;: true }</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>Enabling extension tracing produces the following diagnostic just before failing:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
  <pre class="lang-none prettyprint-override"><code>INFO [12/10/2020, 10:03:22 AM]: Using server binary at c:\Users\&lt;user&gt;\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\globalStorage\matklad.rust-analyzer\rust-analyzer-windows.exe
  DEBUG [12/10/2020, 10:03:22 AM]: Checking availability of a binary at c:\Users\&lt;user&gt;\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\globalStorage\matklad.rust-analyzer\rust-analyzer-windows.exe
  DEBUG [12/10/2020, 10:03:22 AM]: c:\Users\&lt;user&gt;\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\globalStorage\matklad.rust-analyzer\rust-analyzer-windows.exe --version: {
    status: 3221225506,  
    signal: null,  
    output: [ null, '', '' ],  
    pid: 1648,  
    stdout: '',  
    stderr: ''  
  }
  </code></pre>
  </blockquote>
  <p>where <code>&lt;user&gt;</code> is the name of the user account I use to log into the system<sup>1</sup>.</p>
  <p>The <code>status</code> value reported in the error diagnostic (3221225506) translates to 0xC0000022 (<a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-erref/596a1078-e883-4972-9bbc-49e60bebca55" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED</code></a>). Navigating to the binary from within VSCode's integrated terminal and trying to execute <code>rust-analyzer-windows.exe --version</code> doesn't produce any output, which seems to reinstate that running this executable from VSCode is somehow blocked.</p>
  <p>It appears that something changed with respect to access rights executing the server binary from within VSCode. In between Rust Analyzer working and Rust Analyzer no longer working I didn't update Rust, nor rustup, nor VSCode, nor any extensions.</p>
  <p>I did install <a href="https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4592438/windows-10-update-kb4592438" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2020-12 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 20H2 for x64-based Systems (KB4592438)</a>, though, and the time Rust Analyzer started failing coincides with the time the update got installed. That could literally just be a coincidence.</p>
  <p>What additional steps can I take to get to the root cause of the issue, and how do I get Rust Analyzer working again?</p>
  <hr />
  <p>Version information:</p>
  <ul>
  <li>Rust Analyzer (stable): v0.2.408</li>
  <li>Windows 10 Pro: Version 10.0.19042 Build 19042</li>
  <li>VSCode: 1.51.1 (user setup)</li>
  </ul>
  <hr />
  <p><sup>1</sup> <em>This is also the user account VSCode runs under, including all of its spawned processes. Navigating to the path from a command prompt running under this account reveals that</em> rust-analyzer-windows.exe <em>is present, and executing <code>rust-analyzer-windows.exe --version</code> prints a version identifier, as expected.</em></p>