I love Visual Studio Code. It’s a fantastic editor, and I could not picture myself using anything else. But it’s so distracting in many aspects. There is so much going on. So many things on the screen you don’t even realise is there.

Here are part of my VSC configuration aiming at reducing visual noise and distractions. You can read the rational behind some of the choices on Twitter.

{
  "editor.acceptSuggestionOnCommitCharacter": false,
  "editor.codeLens": false,
  "editor.copyWithSyntaxHighlighting": false,
  "editor.dragAndDrop": false,
  "editor.hover.delay": 1200,
  "editor.lightbulb.enabled": false,
  "editor.minimap.enabled": false,
  "editor.parameterHints.enabled": false,
  "editor.quickSuggestions": {
    "other": false,
    "comments": false,
    "strings": false
  },
  "editor.suggestOnTriggerCharacters": false,
  "explorer.openEditors.visible": 0,
  "extensions.ignoreRecommendations": true,
  "git.enabled": false,
  "keyboard.touchbar.enabled": false,
  "update.showReleaseNotes": false,
  "workbench.enableExperiments": false,
  "workbench.startupEditor": "none",
  "workbench.tips.enabled": false
}

Additional things I hid from the UI itself:

  • “Source control”, “Run” and “Accounts” from the activity bar
  • “Output” and “Debug console” from the integrated terminal
  • “Editor indentation”, “Editor encoding”, “Editor End of Line”, “Tweet feedback” and “Notifications” from the status bar

Read previous snippet: <VisuallyHidden />