Activity Bar width in Visual Studio Code

Question

Is there a way to selectively change the width of the Activity Bar in VSCode (v. 1.14)? I have a 1366×768 screen where every pixel counts, so I would like to make this bar narro

Answer 1

EDIT (03/03/20): You can also use the customize-ui addon that allows more fine-grained font sizes and other goodies

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You can also use the negative zoom trick in settings.json:

{
  "window.zoomLevel": -1,
  "editor.fontSize": 13,
  "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 16,
}

The whole editor will get smaller so you need to compensate editor.fontSize and terminal.integrated.fontSize

This allows for smaller activity bar (unfortunately it acts on everything (icons size, font-size ...)) but I much prefer this than the defaults.

Answer 2

Not solving your exact question but another good solution...

• Install the Customize UI extension.
• In your settings.json add "workbench.useExperimentalGridLayout": true,.
• In Settings (UI) go to the Customize UI settings and set Activity Bar to "bottom".
• Completely close VSCode and reopen.

Answer 3

I recommend the excellent extension Activitus Bar. It recreate the activity bar buttons on the status bar:

Then, you just hide this enormous, gigantic activity bar. Happying code!

Answer 4

Wanted to add more to Akelian answer:

On Windows/Linux - File > Preferences > Settings
On macOS - Code > Preferences > Settings

{
  "window.zoomLevel": -1,
  "editor.fontSize": 13,
  "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 16,
  "workbench.activityBar.visible": false,
}

Setting false to "workbench.activityBar.visible" removes the sidebar completely

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings

Answer 5

Not exactly what was asked, but instead of hiding it completely, I added a keyboard shortcut to be able to toggle the bar.

On macOS: Code > Preferences > Keyboard shortcuts > search for: Toggle Activity Bar Visibility

On Linux: File > Preferences > Keyboard shortcuts > search for: Toggle Activity Bar Visibility

Alternatively, you can get to Keyboard shortcuts by pressing ctrl + k and then ctrl + s.

I set it to Option + B just like Command + B for the Side Bar toggle and show it just when I need something there.