Visual Studio output window- what goes there and why?

Question

Hi all,
Can someone please explain to me what goes to the Output window in VS? Where do the messages there come from and do they have other use other than for debbuging?

Thanks.

Answer 1

This panel shows the actual info, that is spit from your application to the console (no matter debug or run mode). Also building, rebuilding and cleaning your project is described as operations there. Check F1 for more info ;)

Answer 2

The Output window is a set of text panes that you can write to and read from. Visual Studio defines these built-in panes: Build, through which projects communicate messages about builds, and General, through which Visual Studio communicates messages about the integrated development environment (IDE). Projects receive a reference to the Build pane automatically through the IVsBuildableProjectCfg interface methods, and Visual Studio offers direct access to the General pane through the SVsGeneralOutputWindowPane service. In addition to the built-in panes, you can create and manage your own custom panes.

Output Window (Visual Studio SDK)

Answer 3

By default it either shows output from the build process, or debugger output. You can use OutputDebugString to display text in the output window while debugging.

There's not much else you can do with it without using an Add-In for Visual Studio.