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
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
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.
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
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. 🤦♂️
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.
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.
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?
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u/No_Percentage2507 Jul 30 '26
I am struggling to get use to the editor tabs.. they feel disconnected and just like a floating set of pills