VSCode.Email Issue #206 (New Default VS Code Themes)

Issue #206 (New Default VS Code Themes)04/01/26

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Not too long ago, VS Code added a much-requested feature to the integrated terminal: the ability to open a new terminal in a separate window. Recently, however, the VS Code team made this feature much more discoverable.

The common shortcuts for the terminal are:

Toggle open/close the Terminal: CTRL+~
Open a new Terminal: CTRL+SHIFT+~

The shortcut for opening a New Terminal Window is:

New Terminal Window: CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+~ (use OPT for ALT on Mac)

That shortcut is definitely not physically convenient, so if you find one that can replace it, feel free to do so!

Another new way a new Terminal (but not a new Terminal Window) is accessible is when you right-click in an empty area next to your open tabs or in an empty editor window. Note that when you use this option, even if you already have a terminal session open in the usual place, the new Terminal will open as a new tab.

You'll also note that the Terminal menu in the main menubar now has a New Terminal Window entry. But of course, this option will be grayed out if you don't already have a terminal open.

New Terminal Window in Terminal Menu in VS Code

And lastly, within the terminal window or tab, you can use the little "New Terminal" dropdown to choose the same New Terminal Window option.

New Terminal Window from Terminal Dropdown in VS Code

Thus, there are lots of places now to access opening a new terminal session in a separate window.

Now on to this week's hand-picked links!

VS Code Tools

Stanza — A learning tool for lessons and challenges on the modern technologies and AI tools right in your code editor, Slack, or the web. Supports VS Code, Windsurf, Cursor, and Antigravity.

Delta — An AI-powered code review/testing assistant for VS Code that provides intelligent feedback on your code changes and a prompt testing panel for LLMs.

Learn Visual Studio Code — A 346-page e-book in EPUB and PDF formats that includes 150+ native tips and 450+ screenshots, to help you customize and learn Visual Studio Code, the world's most popular code editor. Sponsor

Copilot Studio — A VS Code extension that enables developers to edit their Copilot Studio agents from within VS Code. See articles section below for a brief intro.

VS Code Theme of the Week

VS Code Dark — This is a newly refreshed default dark theme that's now built into VS Code, as of the latest weekly stable release (version 1.113). It doesn't have a dedicated extension page, so the links here go to the update documentation.

View Large Image

In addition to the dark version, there's also an improved VS Code Light built-in theme that you might want to check out if you prefer something bright. The dark is pretty good for readability and the UI, but I find the light is too light for my taste.

VS Code Articles & Videos

VS Code Is Becoming an Agent Control Plane — and Most Teams Haven’t Noticed Yet — "VS Code isn’t just getting smarter. It’s becoming the platform for teams to configure, distribute, and govern the AI agents that are increasingly doing the work."

Debugging Multiple .NET Projects in VS Code — A step-by-step tutorial that uses a frontend and services example of how to run multiple .NET projects in debug mode in VS Code.

Meco: Enjoy Newsletters in a Space Designed for Reading — Meco is a distraction-free space for reading and discovering newsletters, separate from the inbox. Add your newsletters in seconds and liberate your inbox today! Sponsor

Copilot Studio Extension Now Available in VS Code — Intro post for this extension, which explains that it's "useful because developers need to have similar controls and processes when developing agents as they do for other applications."

Best of the Rest

SnippetsLab — A Mac app that offers a full-featured snippet manager and note-taking app designed for developers, with features like smart grouping, multi-tab snippets, and syntax highlighting for 600+ languages and formats.

WizardJS — A native JavaScript and TypeScript playground with real-time execution, and advanced features, built with Electron for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

David Burkus Newsletter — Join 25,000+ leaders who receive David's twice monthly tips on building high-performing teams. Sponsor

YEN — A Terminal-first IDE with 1st-class features like native speech-to-text, email, calendaring, ~80 curated stylish themes, custom notifications, power dev tools, and more.

Suggestions?

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