Activity bar not showing in VS code

Einar Osei Sies 41 Reputation points
2021-08-08T09:37:17.427+00:00

Please I am new to using the VS Code Software. Please I just installed the 2019 version 16.10.4 and Preview 2022 of VS code, but in starting the program I don't see the activity bar. I have tried going to View to search for appearance to activate the bar, but appearance is not included in sub-tabs of view. I have tried using the Shift + Ctrl + P but that too does not open to search for the setting. Please any solutions to get the activity bar.

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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VB
VB
An object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft that is implemented on the .NET Framework. Previously known as Visual Basic .NET.
2,578 questions
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  1. Viorel 112.5K Reputation points
    2021-08-08T10:32:03.203+00:00

    Maybe you wanted to install Visual Studio Code (where there is a "Show Activity Bar" command in View, Appearance menu), not Visual Studio 16.10.4, which is a different product? (But Visual Studio is also good for Visual Basic, maybe better).

    1 person found this answer helpful.
  2. Karen Payne MVP 35,036 Reputation points
    2021-08-08T13:29:58.557+00:00

    VS Code is a great lightweight editor for many programming languages although for a novice developer using VB.NET Visual Studio 2019 is the best option.

    There are many benefits for using Visual Studio 2019 (stay away from 2022 preview unless you understand the risk involved). Benefits include the following and more

    • Visual designers for working with data
    • Visually create events, classes, methods
    • Features built-in debuggers, easy-to-configure project settings (though developers tend to not use the GUI ones)
    • Includes tools to generate dependency graphs. Refactoring tools
    • Advanced IntelliSense (best one ever; Visual Studio Code's IntelliSense extension takes second place)
    • Peek/go to definition
    • Build/clean
    • Easy of adding project references
    • Working with NuGet local and remote packages
    • Can develop Cross-platform (as does VS Code)

    Some of the above can be done with the .NET CLI but much easier with VS2019

    Notes

    • Visual Studio Code is an editor while Visual Studio is an IDE.
    • Visual Studio Code is cross-platform and fast, while Visual Studio is not fast but the benefits out weigh what a developer must do manually which can be done easier in VS2019

    I personally use VS2019 for C# and VB.NET while VS Code for TypeScript and ColdFusion