VS Code's rounded corners draw complaints as Microsoft reshapes the editor

A bug report filed on GitHub on September 25 has become one of the most discussed reactions to VS Code's redesign. The user behind it, kidCaulfield, titled it "Bug: Border radius has infected editor" and described how rounded corners spread across the editor's interface. Before Microsoft closed it as a duplicate, the report collected dozens of reactions and a busy Hacker News thread.

What the report says

The author was running VS Code 1.139.0 with all extensions disabled and gave a two-step way to reproduce the problem: open the editor, and it "is now infected with border radius". The corners show up in the text editor, the file explorer, the terminal and Copilot Chat. According to the user, the curves are prominent enough to get in the way of efficient work. When a bot suggested updating to 1.139.1, they replied that the problem remained and that they might switch to another editor.

Reactions, duplicates and a one-word reply

The thread never became a technical debate. Commenters pointed to issue #334285, and the report was closed as a duplicate, labelled *duplicate and assigned to a member of the VS Code team. On Hacker News the topic gathered 79 points and 51 comments; on GitHub the report had 62 reactions by then: 42 thumbs-up, 16 laugh emojis, three thumbs-down and one pair of eyes. The most quoted comment came from another user: "Who thought this was a good idea? It's aesthetically distracting", followed by a one-word reply: "Copilot".

The redesign behind the corners

The duplicate target, "Evolving the VS Code Interface", was opened on September 3 and remains the official summary of the modern UI. It says the redesign brought clearer separation between areas of the workbench, updated typography, a simpler visual hierarchy and more discoverable controls for resizing panels, while spacing, corner radii, colors and shadows were unified. The same thread collects the criticism: users say the interface takes up too much screen space. On a 1920x1080 display at 100% zoom, Microsoft measured about 20 pixels of extra horizontal space and 12-18 pixels of extra vertical space. The reaction score is lopsided: 56 thumbs-down against 18 thumbs-up.

What changed and how to switch back

In response, the team simplified the typography ramp, removed all-caps labels, refined spacing, corner radii and colors, and added settings such as workbench.activityBar.compact and workbench.editor.tabActionReserveSpace. A denser "Compact Mode" is enabled by setting window.density.layout to compact. Users who want the old look can disable workbench.experimental.modernUI and return to the Classic UI, but that route is temporary: Microsoft plans to move everyone to the new interface and remove the classic one. No date has been announced, though the company promises advance notice.