> I don't really understand how to customize VS Code's UI. I don't think you've tried :) View => Appearance has options for toggling all the "bars" ("status"

> I don't really understand how to customize VS Code's UI. I don't think you've tried :) View => Appearance has options for toggling all the "bars" ("status" bar, "activity" bar, "side"bar). Also zen mode is a very nice way to toggle to a mode without any toolbars (you can customize which show up in zen mode; just open the settings UI (Preferences => Settings) and type "zen".