Built-in Command Overview

When working with VSCode on Windows, you can use the following commands to open/preview files from the explorer:

• Give the editor focus with workbench.files.action.focusOpenEditorsView. Default keybinding: Ctrl + K E
• Preview the highlighted file in the explorer with list.select. Default keybinding: Enter
• Preview the highlighted file in the explorer in a new tab with explorer.openToSide. Default keybinding: Ctrl + Enter
• Once the file preview is in focus and you want to open the file so it remains in the editor, use workbench.action.keepEditor . Default keybinding: Ctrl + K Enter

As of writing this, it seems it is not possible to keybind an action that directly opens the file from the explorer. Fortunately, we can remedy this with the macros extension as seen below.

Note: As for Mac, my understanding is that pressing Enter in the explorer will rename the file. Use the default shortcut Command + Down, or open the keyboard shortcuts menu and map list.select to something you want to use to open the file preview from the explorer. You could also remap renameFile from Enter to something else, and then use Enter for list.select.