This beauty appeared after a recent update, and it is very distracting to me.
I searched through the menus, but didn't find any setting to remove it. Is there any way to banish it from the editor?
This is called the minimap, and, as stated in that link,
If you would like to disable minimap, you can set
"editor.minimap.enabled": false
in your user or workspace settings.
Once you save the settings file, the minimap will be gone.
Click on "File" -> "Preferences" -> "Settings" After Settings open, in "search settings" or press "Ctrl+f" type "editor.minimap.enabled" this will take you direct to the settings. On left of it edited option will be available right click to it. And set it to "false" After wards you can see the right side pane is hide.
I know of 3 ways to show/hide it.
I also made a Youtube tutorial here demonstrating all three ways.
Oowekyala's answer is correct. I am adding a description with image for better understanding. Here is the number from 1 to 5 that describe the steps. Firstly click on File->Preferences->Settings. Then you will get User Setting page. Next, type "editor.minimap.enabled" in the search box(step-4). you will get setting option. On left of it edited option(step-5) will be available right click to it.
Here is an easy and quick way to remove the minimap.
Right click anywhere on the minimap and select "Scroll Bar Options...".
On the right side of the dialog window that pops up, you will see a section named "Behavior" under which you should select the "Use bar mode for vertical scroll bar" option.
Press the OK button. This will remove the minimap.
If you want to reactivate the minimap, repeat the steps above except, this time, choose the "Use map mode for vertical scroll bar" option.
Ctrl+Shift+P
and then toggle mini-map using the command palette? – Charlie Parker