diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/.classpath b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/.classpath
index 43b986286a9..eca7bdba8f0 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/.classpath
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/.classpath
@@ -3,5 +3,5 @@
 	<classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.JRE_CONTAINER/org.eclipse.jdt.internal.debug.ui.launcher.StandardVMType/JavaSE-1.8"/>
 	<classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.pde.core.requiredPlugins"/>
 	<classpathentry kind="src" path="src"/>
-	<classpathentry kind="output" path="target/classes"/>
+	<classpathentry kind="output" path="bin"/>
 </classpath>
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
index b4c882c7375..d3a60881ece 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
@@ -22,9 +22,8 @@ Require-Bundle: com.google.gson;bundle-version="2.8.2",
  org.eclipse.cdt.ui
 Import-Package: org.eclipse.ui.editors.text,
  org.eclipse.ui.texteditor
-Export-Package: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core;x-internal:=true,
- org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core.cquery;x-internal:=true,
- org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.core;x-internal:=true,
- org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui;x-internal:=true
+Export-Package: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core;x-friends:="org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui",
+ org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core.cquery;x-friends:="org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui",
+ org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.core;x-internal:=true
 Bundle-Activator: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core.Activator
 Bundle-ActivationPolicy: lazy
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/OSGI-INF/l10n/bundle.properties b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/OSGI-INF/l10n/bundle.properties
index 024165a2a9b..ad6df68d951 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/OSGI-INF/l10n/bundle.properties
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/OSGI-INF/l10n/bundle.properties
@@ -23,5 +23,3 @@ reindex.command.name = Reindex
 reindex.command.label = Reindex
 
 cDocumentSetupParticipant =C Document Setup Participant
-
-PreferencePageTitle=C/C++ Language Server
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/build.properties b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/build.properties
index f8751f13210..d9f2b57e30f 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/build.properties
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/build.properties
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 ###############################################################################
 
 source.. = src/
-output.. = target/classes/
+output.. = bin/
 bin.includes = META-INF/,\
                .,\
                OSGI-INF/,\
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/plugin.xml b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/plugin.xml
index 2421fca26c9..5ee553081cf 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/plugin.xml
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/plugin.xml
@@ -60,15 +60,6 @@
             contentType="org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core">
       </presentationReconciler>
    </extension>
-   <extension
-         point="org.eclipse.ui.preferencePages">
-      <page
-            class="org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core.CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage"
-            category="org.eclipse.cdt.ui.preferences.CPluginPreferencePage"
-            id="org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core.CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage"
-            name="%PreferencePageTitle">
-      </page>
-   </extension>
    <extension
          point="org.eclipse.core.runtime.preferences">
       <initializer
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/core/CPPStreamConnectionProvider.java b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/core/CPPStreamConnectionProvider.java
index 7ac6ad932c2..b30ba08a87a 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/core/CPPStreamConnectionProvider.java
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/core/CPPStreamConnectionProvider.java
@@ -129,7 +129,8 @@ public class CPPStreamConnectionProvider extends ProcessStreamConnectionProvider
 		return null;
 	}
 
-	static File getDefaultLSLocation(String selectedLanguageServer) {
+	//FIXME: to be extracted to a separate type
+	public static File getDefaultLSLocation(String selectedLanguageServer) {
 		String res = null;
 		String[] command = new String[] { "/bin/bash", "-c", "which " + selectedLanguageServer }; //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$
 		if (Platform.getOS().equals(Platform.OS_WIN32)) {
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/.classpath b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/.classpath
index 2a1d59cb0b5..eca7bdba8f0 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/.classpath
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/.classpath
@@ -3,5 +3,5 @@
 	<classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.JRE_CONTAINER/org.eclipse.jdt.internal.debug.ui.launcher.StandardVMType/JavaSE-1.8"/>
 	<classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.pde.core.requiredPlugins"/>
 	<classpathentry kind="src" path="src"/>
-	<classpathentry kind="output" path="target/classes/"/>
+	<classpathentry kind="output" path="bin"/>
 </classpath>
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
index ab01baf73f5..63484bfea9b 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF
@@ -1,9 +1,17 @@
 Manifest-Version: 1.0
 Automatic-Module-Name: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui
 Bundle-ManifestVersion: 2
-Bundle-SymbolicName: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui
+Bundle-SymbolicName: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui;singleton:=true
 Bundle-Version: 0.1.0.qualifier
 Bundle-Name: %Bundle-Name
 Bundle-Vendor: %Bundle-Vendor
 Bundle-RequiredExecutionEnvironment: JavaSE-1.8
-Require-Bundle: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core;bundle-version="[1.1.0,2.0.0)"
+Require-Bundle: org.eclipse.osgi;bundle-version="[3.15.0,4.0.0)",
+ org.eclipse.equinox.preferences;bundle-version="[3.7.0,4.0.0)",
+ org.eclipse.ui;bundle-version="[3.115.0,4.0.0)",
+ org.eclipse.lsp4e;bundle-version="0.13.1",
+ org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core;bundle-version="[1.1.0,2.0.0)"
+Export-Package: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui;x-internal:=true,
+ org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui.preferences;x-internal:=true
+Bundle-ActivationPolicy: lazy
+Bundle-Activator: org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui.LspUiActivator
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/OSGI-INF/l10n/bundle.properties b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/OSGI-INF/l10n/bundle.properties
index 696470d2a62..8a451bcd9aa 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/OSGI-INF/l10n/bundle.properties
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/OSGI-INF/l10n/bundle.properties
@@ -14,3 +14,5 @@
 
 Bundle-Name = CDT LSP UI
 Bundle-Vendor = Eclipse CDT
+
+preferencePages.languageServer.name=C/C++ Language Server
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/build.properties b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/build.properties
index b7c04384294..c91c5656ee2 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/build.properties
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/build.properties
@@ -12,7 +12,9 @@
 ###############################################################################
 
 source.. = src/
-output.. = target/classes/
+output.. = bin/
 bin.includes = META-INF/,\
                .,\
-               OSGI-INF/
\ No newline at end of file
+               OSGI-INF/,\
+               plugin.xml
+
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/plugin.xml b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/plugin.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..326451604b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/plugin.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<?eclipse version="3.4"?>
+<!--
+	Copyright (c) 2019 ArSysOp and others
+
+	This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
+	terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0 which is available at
+	https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/.
+
+	SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
+
+	Contributors:
+		Alexander Fedorov <alexander.fedorov@arsysop.ru> - initial API and implementation
+-->
+<plugin>
+   <extension
+         point="org.eclipse.ui.preferencePages">
+      <page
+            class="org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui.preferences.CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage"
+            category="org.eclipse.cdt.ui.preferences.CPluginPreferencePage"
+            id="org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui.preferencePages.languageServer"
+            name="%preferencePages.languageServer.name">
+      </page>
+   </extension>
+</plugin>
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/.gitkeep b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/.gitkeep
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29bb2d..00000000000
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiActivator.java b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiActivator.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d32bfee6409
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiActivator.java
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * Copyright (c) 2019 Eclipse Foundation and others.
+ *
+ * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
+ * terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0 which is available at
+ * https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/.
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
+ *
+ * Contributors:
+ *     Alexander Fedorov <alexander.fedorov@arsysop.ru> - initial API and implementatin
+ *******************************************************************************/
+package org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui;
+
+import org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core.Activator;
+import org.eclipse.core.runtime.preferences.InstanceScope;
+import org.eclipse.jface.preference.IPreferenceStore;
+import org.eclipse.ui.preferences.ScopedPreferenceStore;
+import org.osgi.framework.BundleActivator;
+import org.osgi.framework.BundleContext;
+
+//FIXME: try to remove this class during upcoming preference access rework
+public class LspUiActivator implements BundleActivator {
+
+	private static LspUiActivator plugin;
+	private IPreferenceStore preferenceStore;
+
+	public static LspUiActivator getDefault() {
+		return plugin;
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	public void start(BundleContext context) throws Exception {
+		plugin = this;
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	public void stop(BundleContext context) throws Exception {
+		preferenceStore = null;
+		plugin = null;
+	}
+
+	//FIXME: currently we are still using "core" bundle to store preferences, to be revisited
+	public IPreferenceStore getLspCorePreferences() {
+		if (preferenceStore == null) {
+			preferenceStore = new ScopedPreferenceStore(InstanceScope.INSTANCE, Activator.PLUGIN_ID);
+		}
+		return preferenceStore;
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiMessages.java b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiMessages.java
similarity index 100%
rename from lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiMessages.java
rename to lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiMessages.java
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiMessages.properties b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiMessages.properties
similarity index 100%
rename from lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiMessages.properties
rename to lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/LspUiMessages.properties
diff --git a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/core/CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage.java b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/preferences/CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage.java
similarity index 91%
rename from lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/core/CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage.java
rename to lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/preferences/CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage.java
index 1aea605bdec..407952a90d6 100644
--- a/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/core/CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage.java
+++ b/lsp/org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/lsp/internal/ui/preferences/CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage.java
@@ -13,10 +13,13 @@
  *     Alexander Fedorov <alexander.fedorov@arsysop.ru> - Bug 558516
  *******************************************************************************/
 
-package org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core;
+package org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui.preferences;
 
 import java.io.File;
 
+import org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core.CPPStreamConnectionProvider;
+import org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.core.PreferenceConstants;
+import org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui.LspUiActivator;
 import org.eclipse.cdt.lsp.internal.ui.LspUiMessages;
 import org.eclipse.jface.preference.FieldEditor;
 import org.eclipse.jface.preference.FieldEditorPreferencePage;
@@ -39,7 +42,7 @@ public class CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage extends FieldEditorPreferencePage i
 
 	public CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage() {
 		super(GRID);
-		setPreferenceStore(Activator.getDefault().getPreferenceStore());
+		setPreferenceStore(LspUiActivator.getDefault().getLspCorePreferences());
 		setDescription(LspUiMessages.CPPLanguageServerPreferencePage_description);
 	}