Specifically, this extension focuses on Material Design icons - hundreds and hundreds of icons - for different types of files and folders. 'Design and strategize how your app is built using foundations that address design from both a broad and detailed perspective.'

'Material Design defines the qualities that can be expressed by UI regions, surfaces, and components,' Google says.

After installing the icons theme, VSCode immediately opens up the command palette and asks you to select your theme.Material Icon Theme (source: Visual Studio Code Marketplace).Īs the name suggests, it follows Google's Material Design scheme, eschewing Microsoft's own Fluent Design counterpart (here's a comparison between the two).

Click install on the icon theme you want.

I’m going for the one called vscode-icons (by VSCode Icons Team).

This takes you directly to the Extensions Marketplace where a list of VSCode icon themes pops up.

Choose the one called “Install Additional File Icon Themes.”.

Once File Icon Theme pops up in the search dropdown, select it.

Open your command palette (Cmd + Shift + P on Mac, Ctrl + Shift + P on Windows), and search for “file icon theme”.

To change the default file icon theme in VSCode: How to change VSCode’s default file icon theme I’ll show you how to change your file icons theme in VSCode to something like the above in less than 30 seconds. You might want an icon theme that is more context-specific to make it easier for you to read and navigate your editor environment, like this: Look at those pretty icons.

Visual Studio Code’s default file icons theme is a bit generic and non-specific:

Edit visual studio code theme