Microsoft Previews New Visual Studio Code Icons

Back in April of this year, Microsoft started previewing a new icon for Visual Studio Code. The company started working on new icons for Visual Studio Code to make it consistent with its other new icons that follow the new Office brand design.

The company’s initial proposal for the new icons introduced improved accessibility and the ability to find the icons much more easily (thanks to the removal of the ribbon on the right side of the icon). The company also wanted to make the Visual Studio Code for Mac icon similar to the Visual Studio for Mac icon.

But some of that is now changing.

The new proposal changes something — like the color of the icon for Insiders, which had a shade of green that was very identical to Excel’s icon. The updated logo features a different shade of green that’s easier to differentiate. Microsoft is also sticking with one icon for all its platforms — so instead of unifying the Mac icons, it will simply have the exact same icon across all platforms, including Mac and Linux.

Microsoft plans to start rolling out the new icon next week to Insiders, and it will be able for regular users in early June. The new icon is already available for Insiders from here.

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Conversation 9 comments

  • skane2600

    25 May, 2019 - 12:27 pm

    <p>Does it mean "keep your fingers crossed it will work?". But seriously, much ado about nothing IMO. Reminds me of the $750,000 NBC spent on the design of their new logo in 1976. Not to mention the millions it cost to make the change throughout their network.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      26 May, 2019 - 9:47 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#430582">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>nothing special, it's a new icon that happens on every new visual studio version and on other MS products from time to time</p>

  • wiredcoach

    25 May, 2019 - 4:08 pm

    <p>Hmm. Nice to see Microsoft trying to be consistent. But a much bigger deal for Visual Studio 19 is something we just discovered when we switched to it. Our UWP app (SaviDraw) loads files a little over twice as fast. </p><p><br></p><p>We have a test file that is gigantic and used to take 10 seconds to load. Now, it's 4 seconds. Files that took a moment or two before just load immediately. And we changed nothing. Now that's a change that is truly significant in Visual Studio 19.</p>

    • IanYates82

      Premium Member
      26 May, 2019 - 9:12 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#430604">In reply to Wiredcoach:</a></em></blockquote><p>You're saying you recompiled it using VS 2019 and your app is now significantly faster? No changes to code, libraries, packages referenced, etc? Interesting… </p>

      • andrewtechhelp

        Premium Member
        26 May, 2019 - 9:45 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#430719">In reply to IanYates82:</a></em></blockquote><p>I read that original comment slightly differently. I read it as the solution itself loads faster in Visual Studio 2019 than it did in 2017, not the application he's building.</p>

  • sevenacids

    26 May, 2019 - 6:01 pm

    <p>Yet another icon, and green again? The last time they attempted to change it this way, everyone hated it and they eventually brought back the blue one. What's so special about icons, anyways? And is it really worth to write about it? Well, I guess that's representative of how boring IT and computing has become since the late 2000s. When boring cloud stuff, container nonsense to tame the uncontrolled growth of systems and APIs, and icons are the hottest stuff in town… :D</p>

    • elig-gm

      27 May, 2019 - 1:22 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#430788">In reply to sevenacids:</a></em></blockquote><p>The green icon is for the VS Code Insider.</p>

  • rmac

    27 May, 2019 - 4:52 am

    <p>MS need to get on and ready Blazor for WebAssembly and stop pratting around with icons. </p>

    • dontbe evil

      27 May, 2019 - 9:38 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#430816">In reply to rmac:</a></em></blockquote><p>because one people works in MS, and the same that works on blazor and webassembly, works also on design… makes sense</p>

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