how to turn on/off console window from code in WPF app?

Question

how to turn on/off console window from code in WPF app?

William Liu 536

I have learned that using the following code in csproj to control the console window displaying.

<!--no console-->
<OutputType>WinExe</OutputType>

<!--with console-->
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>

Is it able to control the console window displaying behavior in cs code?

I also learned that with some P/Invoke code like AllocConsole/FreeConsole/AttachConsole can turn on/off or attach to a console window. But it doesn not 100% fullfill my requirement. It will launch a cmd.exe console window or attach to father console environment. I`m looking forward a way to make the wpf app open the console window in windows terminal.

Is P/Invoke the only way to achieve this? Or any hints can adjust the console window behavior?

Env: win10-ltsc 2021 64bit dotnet 8.0

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Answer 1

Hui Liu-MSFT 48,676 Microsoft External Staff

Hi,@ William Liu. Welcome to Microsoft Q&A.

How do you use AllocConsole/FreeConsole? Is it used like the following code?

public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        [DllImport("Kernel32")]
        public static extern void AllocConsole();

        [DllImport("Kernel32", SetLastError = true)]
        public static extern void FreeConsole();

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            OutputTextBox.Focus();
            AllocConsole();
        }
        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            var line = OutputTextBox.Text;
            Console.Out.WriteLine(line);
        }
private void Button_Click_1(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            FreeConsole();
        }
  }

Or you could try the method below to see if it works for you.

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr GetConsoleWindow();

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);

const int SW_HIDE = 0;
const int SW_SHOW = 5;

var handle = GetConsoleWindow();

// Hide
ShowWindow(handle, SW_HIDE);

// Show
ShowWindow(handle, SW_SHOW);

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William Liu 536 Reputation points

2024-01-20T04:54:08.48+00:00

@Hui Liu-MSFT thanks for your demo code. I tried your two samples.

With Sample1, it can start up a console and close it, but the launched console is looks like using "Windows Console Host", which is different from Windows Terminal in my environment.

With Sample2, it just minimize the console window, not disable the console output.

Hui Liu-MSFT 48,676 Microsoft External Staff

Hi,@ William Liu. If you want to use the Windows Terminal specifically, you might need to launch a new process explicitly.

Here's an example of how you might achieve this:

using System.Diagnostics;

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    private Process consoleProcess;

    public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        OutputTextBox.Focus();
        StartConsole();
    }

    private void StartConsole()
    {
        var psi = new ProcessStartInfo
        {
            FileName = "wt", // Use "wt" for Windows Terminal
            RedirectStandardInput = true,
            RedirectStandardOutput = true,
            RedirectStandardError = true,
            UseShellExecute = false,
            CreateNoWindow = true,
        };

        consoleProcess = new Process { StartInfo = psi };
        consoleProcess.Start();

        Console.SetIn(consoleProcess.StandardOutput);
        Console.SetOut(consoleProcess.StandardInput);
        Console.SetError(consoleProcess.StandardError);
    }

    private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        var line = OutputTextBox.Text;
        Console.Out.WriteLine(line);
    }

    private void Button_Click_1(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        consoleProcess.CloseMainWindow();
        consoleProcess.WaitForExit();
        consoleProcess.Dispose();
    }
}

I'm using "wt" as the command to launch the Windows Terminal. Make sure it's in your system's PATH. You can customize the FileName property of ProcessStartInfo to use a different terminal application if needed.

William Liu 536 Reputation points

2024-01-22T08:14:51.2766667+00:00

Thanks for this workaround for openning wt, @Hui Liu-MSFT . If there is no other methods from code can achieve the equivalent console window setting in csproj, I will close this question.
Hui Liu-MSFT 48,676 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2024-01-22T08:24:29.5766667+00:00

Hi,@ William Liu. Thanks for reply. I haven't found anything else so far. If my answer is helpful to you, you could accept it. It's helpful for community members with related questions.

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