Visual studio 2010 exiting after program ends

Question

Hi, I'm trying out Visual studio 2010 by compiling a C program. After it displays the solution in the "DOS" command window, the window is immediately closed. In Visual studio 2008, one gets the message press any key to continue and pressing a key closes the command prompt window. How do I set this behavior in 2010?

Thanks a lot...

Answer 1

This is normal. The "DOS" console window is attached to your program and is supposed to exit when your program finishes. If you want it to stay open, you need to add code to your program to keep it open. All you have to do is add a print statement and then input statement to the end of your program.

Answer 2

If you start your application without debugger ("Start without debugging"), the console window will remain open until you press a key.

Answer 3

You can add this function and call it right before returning from main():

void keep_window_open()
{
    // clear buffer
    fflush(stdin);
    printf("Please enter a character to exit\n");
    char ch;
    ch = getchar();
    return;
}

I adapted it from a C++ version in a utility header file at Bjarne Stroustrup's site: http://www.stroustrup.com/Programming/std_lib_facilities.h

Answer 4

FWIW, the "Start Without Debugging" command works in VS2010 exactly the same way it does for me in previous Visual Studio versions (that is, for a console project the console remains open when the process terminates with a "Press any key to continue . . ." prompt).

So, exactly how are you getting VS2010 to run your program? If you're using the "Ctrl-F5" shortcut, can you verify that Ctrl-F5 is bound to Debug.StartWithoutDebugging in "Options/Environment/Keyboard"?

Also, can you try running your program using the menu ("Debug/Start Without Debugging")?

Answer 5

Has anyone found a solution to this besides adding additional code at the end?

Answer 6

After a bit of googling, I found this solution that does not involve modifying your code. It contains a workaround that involves modifying your .vcxproj file.

To do this from within Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Express (I'm assuming it is similar for Visual Studio 2010), open your project and navigate to the following menu:

Project->$YOURPROJECTNAME Properties...
    ->Configuration Properties
        ->Linker
            ->System->SubSystem

Then use the dropdown to select Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE) and apply the change.

"Start without debugging" should do the right thing now.

Answer 7

What jackass at Microsoft thought this was a change for the better?

Answer 8

tools->setting->expert settings