Comments by wvd_vegt (Top 9 by date)

Hi

You can (early in your program) implement a ConsoleTraceListener so you can divert the Console output to your own routines (like a winform+textbox). The same is available for Debug.WriteLine if i'm correct. In such handler you could buffer the messages until a form particular winform is shown.

As for the Console API can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682087(VS.85).aspx. In a ConsoleTraceListener you should use methods like WriteConsole to really access the Console. The Api also allows for coloring text ect. Removing the close button is very tricky

My console code is around 56kb including pinvoke signatures so yes the api is complex.

Some handy snippets:

1) Find the console window:

while (fHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
{
if (fHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
{
//win32 aka winnt4/w2k/winxp/vista/win7
fHandle = FindWindow("ConsoleWindowClass", Caption);
}

if (fHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
{
//win98 window class
//win98 is also much slower
fHandle = FindWindow("tty", Caption);
}

//and shows CONSOLE as caption first.
if (fHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
{
fHandle = FindWindow("tty", "CONSOLE"); //win98 window class
}
};

2) Remove the Close button:

ShowWindow(fHandle, (Int32)SW.Hide); //winnt4
RemoveMenu(GetSystemMenu(fHandle, false),
(uint)SC.CLOSE,
(uint)MF.BYCOMMAND);
ShowWindow(fHandle, (Int32)SW.Show); //winnt4

Hi
You're clearly doing something wrong (like using Console.Writeline). I have since ages a console window under a menuitem and it works like charm if you use the win32 api to write and take precautions on the close box & system menu items + ctrl-c/break handling.