Issue #181 (Floating Window Modes)10/08/25
Some developers like to work not just in separate tabs in VS Code, but also in separate windows. VS Code recently added a few new floating window modes, which can come in handy particularly when using a separate AI chat window while working.
Firstly, for any file that's open in a separate window, you'll see the two options available. One is for turning on Compact Mode:
This is basically a separate window with certain UI elements hidden to leave a cleaner interface.
The one next to it is Always-on-top Mode:
This one, naturally, makes the window stay on top of all other windows, including non-VS Code windows. As shown below, this is useful for a GitHub Copilot chat window you might have open, so you can keep it ready at all times, on top of your other applications.
In the above screenshot, my chat window is above my other VS Code window and tabs. When you open a chat in a new window, unlike other Windows, it defaults to Compact Mode and you can see that the pin icon for Always-on-top Mode is now turned so it's a little clearer that the window is "pinned" on top of others.
Now on to this week's hand-picked links!
|
|
|
VS Code Tools
|
voil — A VS Code extension to let you edit the file system like a text buffer (similar to a Vim plugin), enabling you to create new files/directories by typing their names in the editor (with names ending in / treated as directories). See articles below for more details.
SyntX — An AI-powered autonomous coding agent for VS Code that provides smart code suggestions, prebuilt workflows, inline code suggestions, for better debugging, refactoring, automation, and more.
Future-Proof Your Dev Skills at VSLive! Orlando — Join Microsoft experts and dev leaders for 6 days (Nov 16–21, 2025) of in-depth training in .NET, Visual Studio, C#, Azure, Blazor, and modern dev tools. Walk away with proven best practices and practical skills that give you an edge in your career. Sponsor
Code Web Chat — A VS Code extension that connects your code editor with free chatbots and applies chat responses for fast and cost efficient AI coding, for fast and cost-efficient AI-powered coding.
|
VS Code Theme of the Week
|
Motherboard — Something a little different in the 'theme' section, this is actually a Chrome extension to replace your new tab page, but it has the same look and feel of VS Code. It allows you to organize to-dos with a Kanban board, create diagrams, brainstorm, and more.
You can install it on any Chromium-based browser and you'll get VS Code-like features including a file explorer in the left pane, editor on the right, file tabs at the top of the editor section, and auto-save option at the bottom. Seems like the only thing missing is a dark mode, but maybe I missed it somewhere.
Verify data
|
|
|
|
|
VS Code Articles & Videos
|
📺 Bring Your Own Key in VS Code — From a 'latest release' livestream on the VS Code YouTube channel, covering latest updates to the Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) experience in VS Code.
DevOps Challenge: Set Up a Web App Using AWS and VS Code — The author demonstrates how to set up a remote SSH connection to an EC2 instance using VS Code, then generate a basic web app and edit code without VS Code.
The Morning Paper for Tech — Want a byte-sized version of Hacker News that takes just a few minutes to read? Try TLDR's free daily newsletter. It covers the most interesting tech, startup, and programming stories in just 5 minutes. No sports and no politics. Sponsor
Switching to Claude Code + VS Code inside Docker — One developer's experience transitioning from an old AI coding setup he's been using for a while to running Claude Code in Docker using VS Code's "Dev Container" feature.
|
|
|
Best of the Rest
|
bitrig — An iOS app for iPhone that allows you to build apps with Swift and Swift UI on your phone while chatting with AI.
Font Comparison and Review: Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono — A good read if you're interested in the ins and outs of choosing a monospace font, which in this context is on their use in the terminal.
Tools for Front-end & Full-stack Developers — My largest newsletter, sent every Thursday, featuring the latest tools for JavaScript, CSS, React, Vue, SVG, and more. Join 13,000+ subscribers for the latest tools and apps. Sponsor
PasteVault — A platform for secure, encrypted sharing of code or text snippets, with support for Markdown, JS, TS, Python, C/C++, SQL, Rust, Bash, Go, and lots more.
If you have any link suggestions, including a tool, article, or other resource related to VS Code or another IDE, you can hit reply, send it via DM on X, or via chat on Bluesky.
That's it for this issue.
Happy VS Coding!
Louis
VSCode.Email
@LouisLazaris
|
|
|
