Background

The most advanced background image extension for VSCode

Add multiple background images for the window, editors, sidebars, or the panel. Load backgrounds from file, glob, or URL. Transition between multiple background images.

📃 Installation

Install from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
Install directly from VSCode using the id katsute.code-background.

🖼️ Usage

Type Background: Configuration in the command pallette or press the Background tab in the statusbar.
Select where you want to add a background (Window, Editor, Sidebar, Panel).
Add backgrounds and change how it should be displayed.
Use Background: Install or press the install button.

✨ Features

🖼️ Multiple Backgrounds

Add background images for the whole window, editors, sidebars, or the panel. Transition between multiple background images.

Full Window

Editor, Sidebar, and Terminal

Slideshow

Type Background: Configuration in the command pallette or press the Background tab in the statusbar to access the configuration menu.

✱ Glob, URL, and Environment Variable Support

Add background images by file, folder, glob, or URL.

⚠️ Use only / for directories
node-glob only accepts / as path separators, \ is reserved for escape characters.

💻 Commands

Command	Description
`Background: Install`	Installs and enables the background.
`Background: Uninstall`	Uninstalls and disables the background.
`Background: Reload`	Randomizes the backgrounds. Background must already be installed.
`Background: Configuration`	Opens the configuration menu.
`Background: Changelog`	Opens changelog.

⚙️ Configuration

Use the Background: Configuration command to access the configuration menu.

Background properties are saved as arrays so you can have different options for different UI elements.

The order settings are saved in is:

Window
Editor
Sidebar
Panel

Background	Type	Description
`background.windowBackgrounds`	`string[]`	The list of files or globs to use for the window background image.
`background.editorBackgrounds`	`string[]`	The list of files or globs to use for editor background images.
`background.sidebarBackgrounds`	`string[]`	The list of files or globs to use for the sidebar background images.
`background.panelBackgrounds`	`string[]`	The list of files or globs to use for the panel background image.

Property	Type	Description
`background.backgroundAlignment`	`enum[4]`	The alignment of the background image.
`background.backgroundAlignmentValue`	`string[4]`	If the background image alignment is set to `Manual`, this is the literal value for the `background-position` css property. Only accepts a css <position>.
`background.backgroundBlur`	`string[4]`	Background image blur. Only accepts a css <length>.
`background.backgroundOpacity`	`number[4]`	The UI opacity. 0 is fully visible and 1 is invisible.
`background.backgroundRepeat`	`enum[4]`	The background image repeat.
`background.backgroundSize`	`enum[4]`	The background image size.
`background.backgroundSizeValue`	`string[4]`	If the background image size is set to `Manual`, this is the literal value for the `background-size` css property. Only accepts a css <position>.
`background.backgroundChangeTime`	`number[4]`	How long in seconds before the background should automatically change. Set to 0 to always use the same image.

Advanced	Type	Description
`background.useWindowOptionsForAllBackgrounds`	`boolean`	If enabled, all background images will use the options set for the windows background. This does not include the backgrounds, you still need to add background images separately.
`background.renderContentAboveBackground`	`boolean`	If enabled, content like images, PDFs, and markdown previews will render above the background.
`background.smoothImageRendering`	`boolean`	If enabled, use smooth image rendering rather than pixelated rendering when resizing images.
`background.CSS`	`string`	Apply raw CSS to VSCode.

💻 Environment Variables

Variable	Description
`${vscode:workspace}`	Current VSCode project folder
`${user:home}`	Current user’s home directory
`${...}`	System environment variable

⚠️ Known Issues

⚠️ (Mac) read-only file system

This extension doesn’t natively support Mac, please refer to #76 to get this extension working on Mac.

⚠️ (Linux) snap: read-only file system

Applications installed using snap are inherently read-only, install VSCode using deb or rpm.

⚠️ Doesn’t work on WSL

As described in #27, you can not change the background while running this extension in a remote WSL window. You can however still use custom backgrounds by installing and making changes in the main VSCode window, then opening a remote WSL window.

⚠️ VSCode stopped working

This extension modifies an internal file to make backgrounds work, if VSCode stops working replace %LocalAppData%\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\out\vs\workbench\workbench.desktop.main.js with workbench.desktop.main-backup.js.

This extension also modifies %LocalAppData%\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\resources\app\product.json, replace with product-backup.json if VSCode stops working.

🔌 API

Add this extension to your package.json.

{
    ...
    "extensionDependencies": [
        "katsute.code-background"
    ]
    ...
}

Access the api by using:

const background = vscode.extensions.getExtension("katsute.code-background").exports;

install(): void
Runs the Background: Install command.
uninstall(): void
Runs the Background: Uninstall command.
reload(): void
Runs the Background: Reload command.
get(ui): string[]?
- ui : Background to get from; either window, editor, sidebar, panel.
Returns an array of globs for the specified background.
add(ui, glob): Promise<boolean>
- ui : Background to add to; either window, editor, sidebar, panel.
- glob: Glob to add.
Returns true if successful.
replace(ui, old, glob): Promise<boolean>
- ui : Background to replace from; either window, editor, sidebar, panel.
- old: Glob to replace.
- glob: Updated glob.
Returns true if successful.
remove(ui, glob): Promise<boolean>
- ui : Background to remove from; either window, editor, sidebar, panel.
- glob: Glob to remove.
Returns true if successful.

AI generated code is strictly prohibited on this repository.

This extension is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) v2.0.