After seeing the various entries around from people commenting on a Visual Studio configuration using a dark background for code instead of a white background, I got interested in trying it. However, the totally black background just isn't for me; it starts almost hurting after a short while. However, a dark gray background works far better for me. Here's a screenshot of the configuration I'm currently using when looking at code:

Here's the same configuration with an XML file instead:

I'm rather liking it so far; it's actually very readable (as long as I don't switch too much between the VS dark background and other applications with a screaming white background. I'm also trying the Monaco font on a "large" size (11pt), which I'm also liking quite a bit, even better than Consolas, I think.

My configuration is actually derived from Brad's configuration, with a lot of tweaking until I got something I liked. You can download mine from here.

Update: 2006/09/14 - Just updated the settings file with a few fixes and improvements.


Tomas Restrepo

Software developer located in Colombia.