diff --git a/src/vs/workbench/browser/workbench.contribution.ts b/src/vs/workbench/browser/workbench.contribution.ts
index 33fff42359d9..cb5672193e44 100644
--- a/src/vs/workbench/browser/workbench.contribution.ts
+++ b/src/vs/workbench/browser/workbench.contribution.ts
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ const registry = Registry.as<IConfigurationRegistry>(ConfigurationExtensions.Con
 			},
 			'workbench.editor.historyBasedLanguageDetection': {
 				type: 'boolean',
-				default: false,
+				default: true,
 				tags: ['experimental'],
 				description: localize('workbench.editor.historyBasedLanguageDetection', "Enables use of editor history in language detection. This causes automatic language detection to favor languages that have been recently opened and allows for automatic language detection to operate with smaller inputs."),
 			},