Visual Studio Code open tab in new window

Question

I am trying to open a tab in a new window in Visual Studio Code so I can move it to another screen. If I drag the tab the other screen, a file is created. Is there a shortcut to open a tab in a new Visual Studio Code window so I can move it to another screen?

Answer 1

On Windows and Linux, press CTRL+K, then release the keys and press O (the letter O, not Zero).

On macOS, press CMD+K, then O (without holding CMD).

This will open the active file tab in a new window/instance.

Answer 2

This is a very highly upvoted issue request in Github for Floating Windows.

Until they support it, you can try the following workarounds:

1. Duplicate Workspace in New Window ^[1]

The Duplicate Workspace in new Window Command was added in v1.24 (May 2018) to sort of address this.

1. Open up Keyboard Shortcuts Ctrl + K, Ctrl + S
2. Map workbench.action.duplicateWorkspaceInNewWindow to Ctrl + Shift + N or whatever you'd like

2. Open Active File in New Window ^[2]

Rather than manually open a new window and dragging the file, you can do it all with a single command.

1. Open Active File in New Window Ctrl + K, O

3. New Window with Same File ^[3]

As AllenBooTung also pointed out, you can open/drag any file in a separate blank instance.

1. Open New Window Ctrl + Shift + N
2. Drag tab into new window

4. Open Workspace and Folder Simultaneously ^[4]

VS Code will not allow you to open the same folder in two different instances, but you can use Workspaces to open the same directory of files in a side by side instance.

1. Open Folder Ctrl + K,Ctrl + O
2. Save Current Project As a Workspace
3. Open Folder Ctrl + K,Ctrl + O

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For any workaround, also consider setting setting up auto save so the documents are kept in sync by updating the files.autoSave setting to afterDelay, onFocusChange, or onWindowChange