Sometimes you may discover a change in the way Visual Studio Code works for you. Maybe something that used to work no longer does. Perhaps you changed some setting but can't figure out which one it was.

With hundreds of settings in Code, it's nearly impossible to read through them all to find modifications you've made.

Fortunately, there's a way to filter out all preference settings except those that have been modified. Just follows these steps on macOS.  Windows settings access will use the appropriate keyboard / GUI steps:

Open the Settings/Preferences

  • Code menu -> Preferences -> Settings

or

  • Command ⌘ and Comma ,

A setting page will open with the cursor in the "Search Settings" field.

In the "Search Settings" field type "@modified".

Now, instead of seeing all available settings, only those that have been changed will be presented. This makes it much easier to see or undo any changes that had an undesired effect.

Here's a short video demonstrating the process: