The new menu layout is confusing. Is it possible to revert to a classic display?

Sure! You can make the menu visible all the time by enabling Settings | Appearance & Behavior | New UI | Show main menu in a separate toolbar.

@Eugene Morozov can you please answer if JetBrains is going to remove the function to disable the new UI? That would be a starting point for me to migrate to VSCode instead so I need to know whenever I should be preparing for that or no.
Thanks.

Fires3as0n The Classic UI will be transformed into a plugin starting from the 2024.2 version. It can be downloaded from the Marketplace at https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/24468-classic-ui.
For details please check: https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/10911810976914-When-will-old-UI-be-deprecated.

@Anastasiia Zyrianova When the plugin will be deprecated?

Fires3as0n There are no such plans to deprecate the plugin. You can keep tracking the thread to be aware of the updates.

This new UI is completely stupid. Who over there thought it was a good idea to make it more work to use the menu? This is what happens when designers who do not do development are allowed to run amok with ideas that are aesthetic but make the application less productive. 

I'm glad I can fix the hiding of the menu, but I don't like the look of this overall. I use IntelliJ becuase its NOT VSCode. If you want me to use VSCode I'll just drop my license and use VSCode since you're not giving me a choice. Please just make the classic UI the default!

Hello Winston Kotzan 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the new UI.

Currently, there are no plans to revert to the old UI. However, we understand that transitioning to a new user interface can take some time. To ease this transition, you can continue using the Classic UI plugin as an alternative.

Additionally, we’ve prepared a detailed blog post with tips on how you can customize the new UI to better match the experience of the old one: Bridging the Gap Between the Classic and New UIs. We hope you’ll find it helpful as you explore the new UI.

The updated interface was designed to improve usability, performance, and overall user experience. We’re confident that, with time and customization, the new UI will provide you with even greater benefits.

Please don’t hesitate to share any specific feedback or questions.

The new UI closely follows the design of VS Code, which raises the question—what’s the point of keeping an IntelliJ license? It’s disappointing that the UX/UI designers prioritized aesthetics over functionality, without considering the actual needs of developers. Perhaps if they spent more time coding, they’d better understand which features truly matter. It feels like their main goal was to optimize for 13-inch laptops rather than enhancing productivity. In my view, this redesign marks the end of the IntelliJ IDEA era. It’s fascinating and unfortunate to witness how a great IDE essentially orchestrated its own downfall. 

@Zatselyapin
I agree. They let their “designers” run loose on this. Graphic "designers” just care about aesthetics and following trends because they don't actually use the software. I've worked at companies that ruined products this way. Did they talk to customers about why they like IntelliJ over VSCode before making a change like this? Any research? I doubt it. Seems to me they are just trying to copy the latest fashion, not realizing that many of us use IntelliJ because of its uniqueness.

I'll just switch to VSCode since it's free. Everyone else is using it, and even IntelliJ is going to force me to use that clunky style interface now I guess. I hate it, but it is what it is.

honestly the new UI is less user friendly, it is hard to navigate, I do not have the debugger buttons now, the navigation back buttons are missing.

remember these are developer IDE, not user apps, the UX of an IDE should be developer friendly, this is not an editor for normal uses. Looks like the new UI is made just by UX Designers with no feedback from the real consumers. Working backwards is essential in this cases.

i will just agree what was previously sad, new UI is just bad, thanks for the classic ui plugin info, though

Agree with sentiments above.  25 years as a Developer, I'd tell everyone how great IntelliJ is.  i.e.  The best IDE for anything not in the .Net/Microsoft domain.  I've used everything from vi, emacs, pico, Eclipse, RAD, and Visual Studio (all the different versions) for a variety of languages and tech stacks.  VSCode hit the market and I tried it.  Still use it as the ‘free’ alternative, quick editor.  I pay for IntelliJ because it “was” a well designed product and increased my productivity.  This new UI feels awkward, clunky etc… all the sentiments above.  It does not feel like it was meant for Developers.  This is not ‘resisting something new’ or ‘adjusting’.  Great efforts were made to ‘adjust’.  Based on experience adjusting to the the breadth of IDEs, all of Microsoft Office's different UIs over the decades; this new UI feels wrong.  It ‘just’ feels wrong.  It reduces my productivity.  Can't put my finger on it.  

Finally, keep in mind, Developers have 40inch + monitors.  Some of us have 2/3/4 monitors.  A minimalistic GUI for a small screen is counter productive for me.

Fortunately the old UI is available as a plugin

Perhaps have the design team quickly turn around and design a new UI, aimed not at aesthetics but productivity for ‘DEVELOPERS’.  People who code (or soon will tell AI what to code)

I always install the classic UI plugin, it's much better than the new UI. Why not just leave it alone, the classic UI just works!

UPDATE: I found the plugin “classic UI”

please give an option to return to the old ui!

Please fire those morons who replace the classic menu list. those people are useless and only make thing much worse. and they have nothing to do. and bring back the original menu bar. morons

Agree with above comments about new UI - looks like created very subjectively by somebody personal habits rather targeting to productivity, and after long time of being and enjoying convenience you need to adopt to way less convenient and confusing UI.

new UI worth to put to trash, good part - classic UI available as plugin at least.

I find many people including colleagues complaining with this new UI, maybe for development team worth to check with real users opinion and feedback before enabling this new UI as default?
P.s. I am using Rider for .net development, so it is a bit offtopic here, but pain the same…
 

The new UI looks like a drunken college graduate who was never told “NO” by their parents was given access to a user interface option, then tripped out on acid to think… oh, you know what needs to change… the menu that worked for years.

The new menu… it looks so horrible, I would rather vomit on my screen and code through that.

Whomever came up with that needs to be demoted, and whoever approved this as an option needs to be demoted.

In addition to showing the main menu in a separate toolbar as was suggested above, there is an option to merge the menu with the main toolbar in Settings | Appearance & Behavior | Appearance, UI Options. 

I agree with many of the comments above that the change is a downgrade in usability.

The fix outlined in https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/15571730917394-The-new-menu-layout-is-confusing-Is-it-possible-to-revert-to-a-classic-display?page=1#community_comment_29559180509202 works for me.

But I had to google for it despite actually walking through the “What's new” after upgrading a couple of days ago.

What is the advantage of collapsing the menu by default? How many (serious) developers code on their mobile phone?