Remove a keyboard shortcut from VS Code

Question

I was able to overwrite any keyboard shortcut from VS Code just by adding a new key in the keybindings.json file.

However I can't remove an existing shortcut. More specifically, I'd like to remove this one:

{ "key": "ctrl+alt+down",            "command": "editor.action.insertCursorBelow",   "when": "editorTextFocus" } 

Any ideas on how I can remove it?

Answer 1

This is covered in our documentation for keybindings. Just add a - before the command name.

For your example, try adding:

{ "key": "ctrl+alt+down", "command": "-editor.action.insertCursorBelow" } 

to your keybindings.json

Answer 2

1. Goto Code > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
2. The above should open what screenshot shows (list of all keyboard bindings)
3. Right click on the keyboard binding you like to delete
4. Select Remove Keybinding

This should delete the Keybinding.

In fact, under the hood this also edits your keybindings.json. To see the effect, after opening Keyboard Shortcuts, click on the icon having the mouseover text Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON):

If you need more help, try:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/keybindings#_advanced-customization