Removing glob from search.exclude in settings UI sets it to false instead of removing it

[gnowland]

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: Yes

• VS Code Version: 1.100.1
• OS Version: MacOS Sequoia 15.5

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Remove preexisting glob from search.exclude setting in Settings UI
2. Field is set to false in Settings JSON, instead of being removed, which causes the search to include the file/directory in the search even if it is excluded in the inherited files.exclude setting.

[vs-code-engineering]

Thanks for creating this issue! It looks like you may be using an old version of VS Code, the latest stable release is 1.100.2. Please try upgrading to the latest version and checking whether this issue remains.

Happy Coding!

[gnowland]

I see this might be working "as expected", but it's pretty bad UX. As a user when I click an "X" button titled "Remove", and the item is removed from the Settings UI, I expect the value to be removed from the list in the JSON. If the intention is to toggle the setting "false" I would suggest indicating that state by keeping the item in the list but formatting it with a strikethrough in the Settings UI. It would then be beneficial to have a button that actually deletes the string entirely if that is the desired action (not toggle it temporarily).

[rzhao271]

I traced this back to #217179.
Adding Ben.