Zed Editor on Windows: A Comprehensive Review for .NET and Markdown Development

developer tools

This post provides an in-depth review of the Zed editor on Windows, comparing its performance and features against VS Code for .NET and Markdown development. Discover its strengths, limitations, and potential as a future alternative.

This post offers an initial review of the Zed editor, detailing first impressions, necessary customizations for comfort, and conclusions regarding its suitability for working with .NET and Markdown documents.

Why Consider an Alternative to VS Code?

Before diving into Zed, it’s worth discussing the motivation behind exploring a new editor. While existing IDEs like JetBrains Rider and Visual Studio, alongside Visual Studio Code, serve various development needs, each has its niche. Rider is primarily used for extensive development, with Visual Studio reserved for occasional tasks requiring deep Azure integration.

VS Code, traditionally a quick and lightweight editor, has been the go-to for general syntax highlighting, sufficient .NET integration for quick console apps, and excellent Markdown editing. However, recent experiences with VS Code have become less satisfactory.

My primary concern is its diminishing snappiness. While not terrible, it no longer feels as immediate as it once did. The need to minimize extensions to maintain performance, and the occasional 5-second wait for a window to appear, detract from the experience. Ironically, the "improved .NET support" via the C# Dev Kit has also become a source of frustration, particularly its insistence on generating redundant .sln files when a .csproj suffices. This behavior, reminiscent of Visual Studio, is often unnecessary for simple projects, and the solution explorer view is better handled by full-fledged IDEs like Rider. Despite these minor grievances, VS Code's Markdown editing, enhanced by extensions like "Markdown All in One," "Spell Right," and "Word Count," remains a strong point.

Feeling increasingly disillusioned with VS Code as a lightweight editor, a colleague's positive experience with Zed prompted this exploration.

Can Zed Replace VS Code?

Zed, developed by Nathan Sobo (formerly of Atom at GitHub), distinguishes itself by being built in Rust for speed, eschewing Atom's Chromium and Node foundation (which led to Electron). Historically, Zed was not practical due to:

Lack of Windows support (until recently).
A strong focus on collaborative features, which wasn't a personal requirement.
A pivot towards AI functionality, also not a priority for an editor.

However, Zed's release of a Windows build in October 2025, coupled with a colleague's recommendation, made it worth trying. The core requirements for an editor were clear: speed, excellent Markdown support, and functionality for small .NET projects where a full IDE is overkill.

Installing Zed on Windows

Installation is straightforward. Users can download Zed from zed.dev/windows. The installer is standard, offering options like adding Zed to the Explorer context menu.

Upon first launch, Zed offers initial customization options, including basing keymaps on other popular editors and importing settings.

Importing settings from VS Code was a convenient onboarding feature.

The welcome screen is visually similar to VS Code, presenting getting started actions, shortcut explanations, and toolbars.

Initial impressions regarding performance were highly positive; Zed felt remarkably smooth and snappy, significantly faster than VS Code.

Adding C# Support to Zed

Similar to VS Code, Zed's functionality is largely extended through plugins. The extensions window, accessible via Ctrl + Shift + X (with VS Code keymaps), allows users to install language support.

To add C# support, install the "C#" extension by fminkowski, which leverages the Omnisharp Language Server—the same underlying technology as the original VS Code C# extension before Microsoft's C# Dev Kit. This provides syntax highlighting and refactoring options, albeit potentially more limited than the C# Dev Kit.

For a more familiar look, the JetBrains Rider theme and JetBrains New UI Icon Theme were installed. While the theme worked well, the icon theme unfortunately lacked specific icons for C# files. With these adjustments, .NET editing in Zed was ready for evaluation.

Adding Markdown Support

Zed features built-in Markdown support, eliminating the need for additional installations. However, this native support is quite basic.

It provides syntax highlighting and a preview pane but lacks many advanced features. A critical addition was a spell checker, with "CodeBook" being chosen despite its primary focus on code, as it also functions for Markdown.

Initial Impressions and Decision

Ultimately, Zed did not replace VS Code for daily use, primarily due to missing features. However, it's essential to highlight its strengths first.

The Positives: Zed's user experience is incredibly smooth. It launches rapidly, document switching is instantaneous, and even typing feels faster than VS Code. Switching folders/workspaces is exceptionally quick. This performance gain is a feature you don't realize you're missing until you experience it. Furthermore, Zed demonstrates impressive design and build quality, with no encountered bugs or issues during use. The thoughtful onboarding for users of VS Code and other editors is also a significant plus. Most reasons for not adopting Zed stem from feature gaps rather than flaws.

The Missing Features:

Limited .NET Support: While .NET editing largely works, the absence of Razor or .cshtml file support (likely an Omnisharp limitation) is a drawback. This isn't a critical issue for a lightweight editor, as full Razor development typically occurs in a robust IDE.
Inadequate Markdown Features: Despite first-party support, Zed's Markdown capabilities fall short compared to the accustomed VS Code experience. Key missing features include:
- Shortcuts like Ctrl + B for bolding.
- Code folding for headings and other elements.
- IntelliSense for internal links and images.
- Synchronized scrolling between source and preview panes. The most significant impediment is Zed's constant, distracting word suggestions when writing Markdown, which renders it unusable for that purpose.
While these seem minor, they collectively contribute to a polished and familiar writing workflow established over nearly a decade.

Shortcut Discrepancies: Many instinctively used keyboard shortcuts from VS Code did not directly port, leading to initial confusion. While Zed allows extensive keybinding customization, the need to remap numerous common actions (e.g., creating new cursors, deleting lines, duplicating selections, formatting, toggling comments) impacts muscle memory and workflow efficiency. Examples of custom keybindings include:

[
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-shift-delete": "editor::DeleteLine"
    }
  },
  {
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-d": "editor::DuplicateSelection"
    }
  },
  {
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-k ctrl-f": "editor::FormatSelections"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-k ctrl-d": "editor::Format"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "alt-enter": "editor::ToggleCodeActions"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "shift-f12": "editor::FindAllReferences"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "f3": [
        "editor::SelectNext",
        {
          "replace_newest": false
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "shift-f3": [
        "editor::SelectPrevious",
        {
          "replace_newest": false
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-alt-down": "editor::AddSelectionBelow"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-alt-up": "editor::AddSelectionAbove"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Workspace",
    "bindings": {
      "alt-s": "workspace::ToggleLeftDock"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Pane",
    "bindings": {
      "alt-left": "pane::GoBack"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Pane",
    "bindings": {
      "alt-right": "pane::GoForward"
    }
  },
  {
    "context": "Editor",
    "bindings": {
      "ctrl-k ctrl-c": [
        "editor::ToggleComments",
        {
          "advance_downwards": false
        }
      ]
    }
  }
]

AI Integration: While AI features are increasingly common, Zed allows users to disable them directly in settings or via JSON configuration. Current settings include:

{
  "ensure_final_newline_on_save": false,
  "remove_trailing_whitespace_on_save": false,
  "format_on_save": "off",
  "when_closing_with_no_tabs": "keep_window_open",
  "disable_ai": true,
  "telemetry": {
    "diagnostics": true,
    "metrics": true
  },
  "project_panel": {
    "auto_fold_dirs": false
  },
  "base_keymap": "VSCode",
  "minimap": {
    "show": "never"
  },
  "file_types": {
  },
  "show_whitespaces": "trailing",
  "icon_theme": {
    "mode": "dark",
    "light": "Zed (Default)",
    "dark": "JetBrains New UI Icons (Dark)"
  },
  "ui_font_size": 13.0,
  "buffer_font_size": 12.0,
  "theme": {
    "mode": "dark",
    "light": "One Light",
    "dark": "JetBrains Rider Dark"
  }
}

Conclusion

While Zed offers an incredibly fast and smooth experience, it won't be replacing VS Code for me at this time. The .NET experience is largely comparable to VS Code with Omnisharp, lacking primarily in Razor/Blazor support. However, the absence of crucial Markdown features, along with muscle memory challenges from shortcut discrepancies, proved to be deal-breakers. The Zed team is actively developing the product with regular updates, and if the missing Markdown features are addressed in the future, it would become a strong contender. The core strengths of speed and thoughtful design are undeniably impressive.