Visual Studio Code adds overtype mode, paste with imports

Visual Studio Code 1.96, the latest version of Microsoft’s popular code editor, has arrived with an overtype mode and a “paste with imports” feature for JavaScript and TypeScript.

Also known as the November 2024 release, Visual Studio Code 1.96 can be downloaded from the project website for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Visual Studio Code’s new overtype mode will overwrite text in the editor instead of inserting it when typing. Microsoft said a useful scenario for this feature would be when editing Markdown tables, where you want to keep table cell boundaries aligned. Overtype mode can be toggled via the command View: Toggle Overtype/Insert Mode.

The “paste with imports” feature automatically adds imports for pasted code when copying and pasting code between JavaScript or TypeScript. Microsoft noted that by default copy and paste will always insert just the pasted text. But if a “paste with imports” edit is available, the paste control will make it available to select.

Other new features and improvements in VS Code 1.96:

VS Code 1.96 finalizes an API that enables extensions to provide coverage on a per-test basis, allowing developers to see exactly what code any given test actually executed.

A new copilot-debug terminal command helps developers start a debugging session with GitHub Copilot in VS Code. Also, GitHub Copilot’s debugging capabilities, including copilot-debug and the /startDebugging intent, now generate preLaunchTasks for code that needs a compilation step before debugging.

Users now can directly use the Move To context menu action on a view container to move the view between the Primary Side Bar, Secondary Side Bar, or Panel area.

Font ligatures now are supported in the terminal, regardless of whether GPU acceleration is being used.

Developers can control which extensions can be installed in VS Code using the extensions.allowed setting. This setting allows for specifying allowed or blocked extensions by publisher, specific extensions, and versions. If an extension or version is blocked, it will be disabled if already installed.

JavaScript and TypeScript support now uses TypeScript 5.7.

The December 11 release of VS Code 1.96 follows the October 29 release of VS Code 1.95, which previewed AI-powered code editing with GitHub Copilot. VS Code 1.95 was followed by three point release updates that addressed various bugs.