What are these ANNOYING boxes around my VB code, and how do I get rid of them?

Brandon Stewart 136 Reputation points
2021-03-28T00:28:08.437+00:00

I get boxes (see attached image) around my VB code in Visual Studio. They occur most promenantly when I use the Search and Replace tools. What are they, and how do I permenantly get rid of these hideous and annoying things? I have asked this question on numerous other forums and no one seems capable of answering me.

82019-screenshot-2021-03-27-113505.png

Visual Studio
Visual Studio
A family of Microsoft suites of integrated development tools for building applications for Windows, the web and mobile devices.
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  1. Brandon Stewart 136 Reputation points
    2021-03-29T20:02:50.747+00:00

    No 3rd-party extensions are installed. No extensions/add-ons at all are installed except those Microsoft forces onto us and won't let us uninstall - I despise bloat.

    Also, I've attached my settings file with an XML file extension. : 82496-exported-2021-03-29.xml


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  1. Viorel 110.8K Reputation points
    2021-03-28T09:50:29.14+00:00

    If this is caused by some undesirable configuration changes and you want to restore the normal settings, then go to menu, Tools, Options, Environment, Fonts and Colours, select “Text Editor” and press “Use Defaults”.

    Then, if you like the Dark theme, go to Environment, General, and select it.

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  2. Brandon Stewart 136 Reputation points
    2021-03-28T14:04:39.967+00:00

    "If this is caused by some undesirable configuration changes..."

    That's the problem. I don't know what the cause is. Whatever is causing it, it must be part of the VS program, whether it is intentional or a bug. Yet, no one from Microsoft seems to know what particular setting (or whatever else) is causing it. That's a bad sign when the makers of a product don't even know what one of their features is.

    I have been using the same font/color settings for years and have not changed them. The boxes began to appear recently following a recent update.

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  3. Dylan Zhu-MSFT 6,401 Reputation points
    2021-03-29T09:19:26.337+00:00

    Hi BrandonStewart,

    Did you install third editor extension in your visual studio? Please try to disable them in Extensions > Manage Extensions.

    If not, could you provide the vssettings file through Tools > Import and Export settings... ?

    Best Regards, Dylan

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