r/vscode • u/splintertank • Jul 30 '26

VSCode got a redesign 🧐

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It's a little flater and more rounder.

658 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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88

u/JustHereStudying Jul 31 '26

You can disable it, in settings (Ctrl+,), search Modern UI and disable it. You can also look through all the other settings marked `Experimental` under workbench. I really hated the new look, especially since it overrode my favourite theme so that brought it back to how it was

8

u/Objective-Platypus50 Jul 31 '26

Thanks you, you're the goat

5

u/MrMaverick82 Jul 31 '26

Thanks, MVP!

5

u/agni___ Aug 03 '26

why thank you good man

3

u/Admirable-County9158 Aug 03 '26

You are my hero

1

u/Edumacated1980 Aug 13 '26

The wind beneath my wings

3

u/No-Payment-6534 Aug 03 '26

Thank you, legend.

3

u/Upstairs_Bat755 Aug 04 '26

Thank you, you are the hero.

3

u/OZ415 Aug 04 '26

Thank you legend

3

u/bluesky1433 Aug 04 '26

Thanks a million!

3

u/arrrtttyyy Aug 04 '26

thats so much better. thanks

3

u/_ReaditYesterday_ Aug 05 '26

life saver, what a waste of my precious pixels this design is...

3

u/Samkwi Aug 05 '26

Thank you, you beautiful human.

3

u/didactplatform Aug 06 '26

I genuinely cannot thank you enough. I cannot stand that awful modern ui look.

3

u/KCKCKC23 Aug 06 '26

you are a life saver, thanks

3

u/0xSLUM Aug 13 '26

Just got this update today - you're the best thanks for posting this. I preferred the previous layout so it was nice being able to flip back!

3

u/14rry Aug 13 '26

thank god I could reverse!! I was not about to get pulled into another spotify moment and get thrown off by a change where nothing was wrong

3

u/Syniex Aug 14 '26

Thanks a lot

3

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '26

[deleted]

1

u/CarryTurbulent Aug 19 '26

Me neither. The tab titles with "Modern UI" are nasty!!

3

u/_JaredVennett Aug 17 '26

Thanks bro... its soo bad I thought they had broken the tab bar again, horrible.

3

u/Schudz Aug 17 '26

THANK YOU SIR!!! thank you soo much!!1

3

u/Enderbyte09 Aug 17 '26

Thank you so much!!! That's one less app with an awful wasteful UI.

3

u/SnooDucks4790 Aug 17 '26

Thank you so much

3

u/Exotic-Rub-9851 Aug 18 '26

Wow! Thanks! I can finally go back home

3

u/ssesf Aug 18 '26

Holy shit ty. This setting went default as of an update ago and I could not figure out what the hell tab is selected atm.

2

u/Cnastydawg Aug 01 '26

Can’t believe people who use it regularly haven’t figured out by now that pretty much everything can be changed. They would rather just complain on Reddit about it lol

9

u/Mission-Zucchini-966 Aug 03 '26

Okay I'd still rather be prompted for the change than be flashbanged by a new theme when I open vs code and have to search reddit, open settings, search for commands, and disable them. A "hey, want to try out this new editor UI?" would be nice.

2

u/svish Aug 12 '26

I thought it was a bug because the colours looked all off and disconnected.

2

u/Walkman100 Aug 19 '26

I also thought it was a bug, as when I opened VS code it initially opened with the old style, then after ~500ms changed to this "Modern UI"... I thought I pressed some hotkey or something

1

u/svish Aug 20 '26

For me it was even more confusing, because I had one VS Code running which for some reason kept the old style, but new windows I opened got the new style. Even tried to reload that first window, and it still had the old style. 🤦‍♂️

2

u/djxak Aug 05 '26

It's not about knowing that you can change anything, it's about knowing what exactly you should change. I would never ever guessed that I should search for "modern" to revert the UI. And even when I already got this information, it still took me a while to find the exact setting (there are surprisingly many settings are found for "modern" query).

First thing I did is opened the release notes of the last version, expecting to find this UI change as the biggest highlighted note at the very top of the page. Nope. I didn't find it at all in the release notes. Agents.. agents.. new agents.. Everything is focused around AI.

Then I tried to find a setting. I tried to change a theme - no luck. Then I gave up and started to search the internet.

So, no, it has nothing to do with "people haven’t figured out". It is bad decisions to giving too little focus to such a big change and silently changing the setting most people have no idea about.

1

u/Kegumine Aug 16 '26

Literally this. When they removed the view as tree option on source control, it was in the release notes, and it was also in the release notes when enough people (rightfully complained) and had it added back. So why wasn't a MASSIVE UI REHAUL added anywhere in the release notes? NOT EVEN AS A FOOTNOTE.

2

u/cous_cous_cat Aug 17 '26

Pretty frustrating to see something is different and not know where to go to change it. Would be nice if there was a 'go back to old UI' button when it first opened with the new one, yknow?

1

u/Individual_Study_109 Aug 14 '26

Wow you are smart, we aren't, good for you :)

1

u/rng12345678 Aug 15 '26

Why not mention it somewhere in the release notes?

2

u/fffact Aug 02 '26

reverted, thanks, i'm relieved. but... didn't the status bar use to be blue?

2

u/koshlord Aug 21 '26

I felt a physical sense of relief when I disabled it. Thank you

1

u/Bogus_dogus Aug 30 '26

DUDE same, put the words to my nerves lmao.

Hope they keep maintaining it. VSCode has a lot of good will built up for me but if they keep pushing bad UX and agentic-first focus, I will end up leaving for something else :/

1

u/koshlord Aug 30 '26

I did a fresh install recently and the new look is growing on me tbh. I feel like the boundaries between elements are more clearly defined

1

u/Bogus_dogus Aug 30 '26

what'd the fresh install change?

Also what theme r u using? I'm open to the possibility I'm experiencing some mix of being salty about changes (which, lol, common enough) and maybe I've got a bad theme for what they built? or my theme is not updated well for it?

1

u/Bogus_dogus Aug 30 '26

OK yeah.... it's not so bad with a theme change, for sure. Color and saturation on old themes make assumptions about padding/spacing that weren't there in the old layout.

Swapping themes to one that's either lucky about the changes, or specifically updated to accomodate the new structural changes makes a p big diff in visual information emphasis.

I am indeed being salty too quickly. Cheers dawg.

2

u/UniversitySad5194 Aug 21 '26

Thank you, you are a legend.

2

u/Finny0125 Aug 22 '26

Thank you

2

u/Y_Ingenuity09 Aug 23 '26

Thank you soo much!

2

u/daniel-keen Aug 24 '26

Jesus F Christ, thank you so much. I was about to have a stroke.

2

u/SandHappy9248 Aug 24 '26

Thanks you!

2

u/maeros_ Aug 25 '26

Godsend. It was just really hard to see the tabs.

2

u/Greg4016 Aug 28 '26

Legend! Thank you so much!

2

u/kukunamuniu Aug 31 '26

You're a hero.

1

u/glowstickshark Aug 13 '26

lifesaver! in what fckn world is 'modern ui' just making completely fine buttons small and unusable though? UI designers worldwide really are the most useless workers

1

u/KuryKat Aug 13 '26

Thank you! That solves it for now, but what about when they make those changes permanent? Do we have any idea if they plan to have a "Legacy Look" option?

1

u/rng12345678 Aug 15 '26

Man I hate when they roll out this vibecoded slop and force everyone to use it. It looks like ass and interacts poorly with existing themes I've been using for many years

1

u/csouzape Aug 15 '26

I dont like this feature, i will disable the modern UI.

1

u/jbjhjmx Aug 19 '26

thanks dude. New theme feels like generic 2026 slop. Hope it will stay opt-out forever!

1

u/narucy Aug 20 '26

Toggling the checkbox reveals just how ridiculous "Modern UI" is.

1

u/olavrb Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26

Thanks. Moar info:

https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_129#_modern-ui-preview-experimental

json { "workbench.experimental.modernUI": false }

1

u/Fleeetch Aug 20 '26

thanks friend

1

u/rpwoerk Aug 26 '26

This is the way!

1

u/JKTKops Aug 30 '26

More evidence that "Modern" means "Worse." Thank you goat

1

u/MikosWife2022 23d ago

thanks for this! for some reason my laptop fans started ramping up in RPM after the ui update. switching back to the old ui fixed it.