Cannot disable New UI in versions 2024.2+ of JetBrains IDEs. How to bring back the old (Classic) UI?

Problem

New UI cannot be disabled in JetBrains IDEs by disabling the ide.experimental.ui option in IDE registry as before.

How to enable the old (Classic) UI?

Cause

Starting with version 2024.2, old (Classic) UI is distributed as a plugin, and is no longer bundled in the IDE by default (official blog post about the change).

Solution

Install and enable the 'Classic UI' plugin:

1. From the main menu, navigate to File | Settings | Plugins | Marketplace

2. Search for classic ui

3. Click the Install button

4. Restart the IDE to get the old UI back

   

If you want to switch to the New UI again, disable or uninstall the 'Classic UI' plugin in File | Settings | Plugins | Marketplace.

How to make the New UI look and feel like the old one?

New UI is highly customizable. With a few clicks, you can make it look and feel almost identical to the old one.

To try it yourself, refer to this guide: How to configure the new UI to behave more like classic one

Why replace the old UI at all?

The goal of introducing a new UI was to make the IDE more beginner-friendly and update the codebase to be able to implement new features and fix bugs faster.

New UI is constantly evolving thanks to the feedback we get from users. So if you are unhappy about a particular feature or feel like something is missing that you loved in the old UI, please let us know. If the issue is not fixed already, we will make sure to address it in one of the future releases.

We are committed to maintaining the 'Classic UI' plugin until at least Match 2026. It means that it will be tested and supported for all IDE versions we release until then.