Turn off multi-line editing on Up/Down arrow in VS 2022

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The latest version of Visual Studio "helpfully" added new functionality to its multi-line editing capabilities (Alt+Shift+Up/Down) that allow you to move the cursor vertically after you've expanded the cursor. Previously, and this is how it works in Notepad++ and others as well, hitting Up or Down (no metas) will collapse the multi-line and give you a single-line cursor again.

I don't understand how moving the multi-line cursor vertically is useful, and it's rather annoying to discover that hitting Up and typing something ended up creating a bunch of characters I don't want in other lines. The only thing that collapses the cursor is Escape.

Is there an option to disable this and return back to the original behavior of Up/Down = collapse?

1 Answers

This feature is called "multi-caret selection". You can revert to the old behavior under Tools > Options > Text Editor > Advanced and select the option Use box selection.

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