Console.Write in .NET GUI Application

Question

In a C# .NET GUI Application. I also need the console in the background for some tasks. Basically, I'm using a Thrid Party library for some processing (takes lot of time) which writes its intermediate results to console. This processing is a computationally time taking task. So, I'm assigning this task to backgroundworker. I mean background worker calls these library functions. But problem is there is no way for me to show the user status of computation, because I don't have source of the library. I was hoping Console will be shown. But surprisingly Console.WriteLine doesn't seem to work. I mean, there isn't any console window shown. How come?

EDIT:

I tried setting application type = console. But there seems to be a problem. Only, main thread is able to access the console. Only Console.WriteLines executed by main (Application) thread are displayed on console. Console.WriteLines executed by other (BackgroundWorker)threads of the GUI, the output is not shown. I need console only for Background workers. I mean, When background worker starts, console starts & when it ends console will be off.

Answer 1

Create your own console window and use the Console.SetOut(myTextWriter); method to read anything written to the console.

Answer 2

Set your application type to "Console Application". Console applications can also create GUI windows with no problem, and write to the console at the same time.

If you don't have control of the main application, and you want to make sure that a console is shown, you can p/invoke AllocConsole (signature here).

This isn't the same as being a console application though, your application will always get a separate console window, which might be surprising to someone who launched it from a command prompt window. You can work around that with AttachConsole (signature and example here) but shell redirection of the output still won't work. That's why I suggest setting the application subsystem to console if you can.