Console with a WinForm

Often, you need a console window together with a WinForm application. It can be very handy for debugging purposes while developping, but also for a (temporary) logging of some data. It is very simple to do. The following program demonstrates it, using P/Invoke.

Start a new Windows application, drop a CheckBox on the form, name it ViewConsole, and copy the following code into it.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;    // needed to call external
                                         // application (winAPI dll)

namespace WindowsApplication1
{
   partial class Form1: Form
   {
      public Form1()
      {
         InitializeComponent();
      }

      private void ViewConsole_CheckedChanged(object sender,
                                              EventArgs e)
      {
         if (ViewConsole.Checked)
            Win32.AllocConsole();
         else
            Win32.FreeConsole();
      }
   }

   public class Win32
   {
      [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
      public static extern Boolean AllocConsole();
      [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
      public static extern Boolean FreeConsole();
   }
}