Unlocking Hidden Acrylic/Mica Style UI in Visual Studio 2022

YouKnowWhyNo guides readers through enabling a hidden Acrylic/Mica UI style in Visual Studio 2022, offering clear steps for customization.

Introduction

This article by YouKnowWhyNo reveals a hidden user interface (UI) feature in Visual Studio 2022, allowing users to enable the Acrylic/Mica design elements commonly seen in modern Windows applications. Unlike what some suspect, you do not need the preview version of Visual Studio—just a specific extension and a few configuration steps.

Steps to Enable Acrylic/Mica UI

1. Install the Feature Flags Extension:
   • Download and install the Feature Flags extension for Visual Studio 2022.
2. Restart Visual Studio:
   • Close and reopen Visual Studio to activate the newly installed extension.
3. Enable Feature Flags:
   • Navigate to: Tools > Options > Feature Flags.
   • Locate and enable the options Shell.ExperimentalSyles and Shell.Material.Acrylic.
   • Click OK to save your changes.
4. Restart Visual Studio Again:
   • To apply the changes, restart Visual Studio one more time.
5. Experience the New UI:
   • Upon restart, Visual Studio 2022 should display the Acrylic/Mica UI style, giving the IDE a fresh, modern look.

Additional Resources

• The process was discovered through a Visual Studio Community post: Cannot Enable Visual Studio UI Refresh
• Preview image of UI
• Original Reddit Post

Conclusion

By following these straightforward steps, developers can personalize their Visual Studio 2022 environment with modern UI elements. The approach does not require special builds or insider versions, making it widely accessible to current users.

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Content provided by YouKnowWhyNo from a Reddit community post.

This post appeared first on “Reddit Visual Studio”. Read the entire article here