Keyboard shortcut to take file out of preview mode in VSCode

As of v1.19 (released in December 2017) Alt+Enter opens the file (after Ctrl+P) NOT in preview mode but in a "permanent", touched status.

Related question: How do I configure Visual Studio Code to open files always in a new tab?

If you would rather open the file directly from Quick Open (skipping the preview mode altogether), you can change this in the settings or add this to settings.json:

"workbench.editor.enablePreviewFromQuickOpen": false

If you want to disable previews for other means of opening files (like the project explorer), this will do the trick:

"workbench.editor.enablePreview": false

Try the View: Keep Editor command (default shortcut Ctrl+K, Enter):

Note: this shortcut is a chord, meaning that Enter must be pressed after releasing Ctrl+K.