How to Reset Visual Studio Code to the Default Settings

# Table of Contents

# Resetting specific settings in VS Code

If you only need to reset specific settings:

Press Ctrl + Shift + P (or Command + Shift + P on macOS).

Note: you can also press F1 to open the Command Palette.

Type user settings and select Preferences: Open User Settings.

open user settings

You can also open the settings screen by pressing Ctrl + , on Windows and Linux or Cmd + , on macOS.

Search for the setting you want to reset, e.g. cursor blinking.
Click on the setting and then on the cogwheel icon and select Reset Setting.

reset specific setting

Here is a short clip that demonstrates how this works.

reset specific setting in vscode

You can repeat the steps to reset multiple specific settings.

If you only want to filter for the settings that you've modified, search for @modified.

use modified filter

The @modified filter will only render a list of the settings that you've modified.

Make sure to restart VS Code after resetting your settings.

# How to Reset all VS Code settings to the defaults

If you need to reset all VS Code settings to the defaults:

Press Ctrl + Shift + P (or Command + Shift + P on macOS).

Note: you can also press F1 to open the Command Palette.

Type user settings json.
Click on Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)

preferences open user settings

Delete the contents of the file and add a set of curly braces {} as a replacement.

settings.json

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{}

delete contents of settings json file

Once you delete everything between the curly braces {}, your settings will be reset to the defaults.

You can also open your settings.json file in the following way.

Press Ctrl + Shift + P (or Command + Shift + P on macOS).

Note: you can also press F1 to open the Command Palette.

Type user settings and select Preferences: Open User Settings.

open user settings

You can also open the settings screen by pressing Ctrl + , on Windows and Linux or Cmd + , on macOS.

Click on the Open Settings (JSON) icon in the top right corner.

Once you open the file delete, everything between the curly braces and leave the file looking as follows.

settings.json

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{}

Make sure to restart VS Code after resetting your settings.

# Make sure to delete your .vscode/settings.json file as well

Your project-specific configuration is stored in a .vscode/settings.json file in the root directory of your project.

If you have ever edited settings with workspace mode active, this file will contain project-specific configuration that you also have to delete.

delete contents of vscode settings json

You can either delete the entire .vscode/settings.json file or only leave an empty set of curly braces as shown in the screenshot.

.vscode/settings.json

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{}

If you need to uninstall all extensions or reset your keyboard shortcuts as well, click on the following articles:

# Delete the contents of your settings.json file directly

You can also delete the contents of your settings.json file directly.

Here are the paths to the settings.json file depending on your operating system:

on Windows: %APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json.
on macOS: $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/settings.json.
on Linux: $HOME/.config/Code/User/settings.json.

# On Windows

On Windows, start CMD and issue the following command.

cmd

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# Windows
code %APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json

reset to default settings windows

Once you open the file, set its contents to an empty set of curly braces {} to reset it to the defaults.

settings.json

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{}

You can also use the notepad command to do the same.

cmd

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# Windows
notepad %APPDATA%\Code\User\settings.json

reset settings using notepad

Make sure to restart VS Code after resetting your settings.

# On macOS

On macOS, open your shell and issue the following command.

shell

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# macOS
code $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/settings.json

Set the contents of the file to an empty set of curly braces {} and save it.

You can also use the gedit command to do the same.

shell

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# macOS
gedit $HOME/Library/Application\ Support/Code/User/settings.json

# On Linux

On Linux, open your terminal and run the following command.

shell

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# Linux
code $HOME/.config/Code/User/settings.json

Set the contents of the file to an empty set of curly braces {} and save it.

You can also use the gedit command.

shell

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# Linux
gedit $HOME/.config/Code/User/settings.json

If you need to uninstall all extensions or reset your keyboard shortcuts as well, click on the following articles:

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

I wrote a book in which I share everything I know about how to become a better, more efficient programmer.

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How to Reset Visual Studio Code to the Default Settings

# Table of Contents

# Resetting specific settings in VS Code

# How to Reset all VS Code settings to the defaults

# Make sure to delete your .vscode/settings.json file as well

# Delete the contents of your settings.json file directly

# On Windows

# On macOS

# On Linux

# Additional Resources

Borislav Hadzhiev