Have you tried updating JSON User settings to “update.mode”: “none”
Navigation steps:
File > Preferences > Settings or [ Ctrl + Shift + , ]
References:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/FAQ
Following block of text is from the FAQ VS Code
How do I opt out of VS Code auto-updates?
By default, VS Code is set up to auto-update for macOS and Windows
users when we release new updates. If you do not want to get automatic
updates, you can set the update.channel setting from default to none.To modify the update channel, go to File > Preferences > Settings and
add the update.channel setting with the value “none”."update.mode": "none"