Allocate a console for a WinForm application

Question

I use the following code to allocate a Console for a WinForm application. The Console window shows up successfully and the output is there. But when I close the Console window, my WinForm applicaion is closed at the same time. Why? I want to keep the WinForm window.

private void btn_to_console_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (NativeMethods.AllocConsole())
    {
        lbl_console_alloc_result.Text = "Console allocation successfully!";
        IntPtr stdHandle = NativeMethods.GetStdHandle(NativeMethods.STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
        Console.WriteLine("from WinForm to Console!");
        lbl_console_alloc_result.Text = Console.ReadLine();
    }
    else
        lbl_console_alloc_result.Text = "Console allocation failed!";
}

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImportAttribute("kernel32.dll", EntryPoint = "GetStdHandle")]
public static extern System.IntPtr GetStdHandle(Int32 nStdHandle);

/// Return Type: BOOL->int
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImportAttribute("kernel32.dll", EntryPoint = "AllocConsole")]
[return: System.Runtime.InteropServices.MarshalAsAttribute(System.Runtime.InteropServices.UnmanagedType.Bool)]
public static extern bool AllocConsole();

Thanks in advance...

Answer 1

Closing a Console Window will shutdown any application -whether a console application, Windows Forms, native Windows app, or WPF application. This is a "feature" of Console windows.

If you don't want this behavior, you should, instead, just make a custom window to display your output instead of using a Console Window. Otherwise, you need to call FreeConsole instead of closing the Window to detach your application from the Console window.