Visual Studio Code v1.80 Changelog

This update is all about making the code editor more accessible for everyone, giving you more control over your screen layout, and adding helpful tools for finding bugs—both in your code and in VS Code itself. It matters to anyone who uses VS Code, but especially developers who rely on screen readers or work heavily with Python and C#.

What's new

• Terminal image support: You can now view pictures directly inside the integrated terminal instead of having to open them in a separate app.
• Accessible View for screen readers: A new command lets screen reader users inspect content (like hover pop-ups or AI chat responses) character by character or line by line.
• Context-aware accessibility help: A new help menu (Alt+F1) gives screen reader users tips specific to whatever part of the editor they are currently using, like notebooks or the terminal.
• Audio cues for AI chat: If you use GitHub Copilot (an AI assistant), VS Code can now play sounds to let you know when your chat request is sent, when it's thinking, and when the response is ready.
• New Python extensions: There are new tools for Python developers to check code types (mypy) and fix code errors (debugpy).
• Remote WSL connections: If you use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you can now connect to WSL setups on remote computers using VS Code's "Tunnels" feature.
• Video autoplay and looping: When previewing a video file inside VS Code, you can now set it to play automatically on a loop (it will be muted by default).
• Troubleshoot Issue command: A new built-in tool helps you figure out if a glitch is caused by an extension. It works by turning your extensions on and off one by one until it finds the culprit.

Improvements

• Smarter split screens: When you split your screen into multiple panes, VS Code now tries to do it without messing up the custom sizes you already set up.
• Tab sizing control: You can now set a minimum width for your file tabs so they don't get awkwardly small when you have a lot of files open.
• Better search ignoring: If you tell VS Code to ignore files listed in your .gitignore file (a file that tells Git which files to skip), it will now actually respect that list even if your project isn't a full Git repository yet.
• Cleaner screen reader text: The settings menu is less clunky when read aloud by screen readers. It now reads normal names instead of confusing computer file paths.
• Read-only warnings: If you try to type in a file that is locked as "read-only" (meaning you can't change it), VS Code gives you a clearer warning and a quick link to fix the setting.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where double-clicking a tab would unexpectedly maximize that section of the screen. You can now turn this behavior off completely.
• Fixed a bug where the comments section (like those from GitHub pull requests) was cut off by a height limit. You can now remove that limit to see long comments fully.
• Squashed a security issue and other general bugs that were patched in the minor 1.80.1 and 1.80.2 updates.

Breaking changes

No breaking changes in this release.