Console application freezes on mouse click

Question

I have a very simple C# console application that displays some text and loops waiting for input until the escape key is pressed or the timeout period is served.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;

namespace SampleApp
{
    public static class Program
    {
        public static void Main (string [] args)
        {
            var key = new ConsoleKeyInfo();
            var watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
            var timeout = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5);

            Console.WriteLine("Press escape to return to the previous screen...");
            Console.WriteLine();

            do
            {
                Console.WriteLine("This screen will automatically close in " + ((timeout + TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)) - watch.Elapsed).ToString(@"hh\:mm\:ss") + ".");

                if (Console.KeyAvailable) { key = Console.ReadKey(true); }
                else { Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(0.10D)); }
            }
           while ((key.Key != ConsoleKey.Escape) && (timeout > (watch.Elapsed - TimeSpan.FromSeconds(0.5D))));

            watch.Stop();
        }
    }
}

This works fine but if I click on the console app with the mouse (to gain focus for example), all activity on the screen freezes until I right click or press escape. During this time, the title of the console also changes to "Select AppName" assuming "AppName" was the title before.

If I right-click ion the console first, the do {...} while (); loop seems to go crazy and prints a lot of extra lines.

Since I am not aware of this behavior of the console, not sure what to ask. Is this to be expected? If so, can I change this behavior? If not, any suggestions for workarounds would be appreciated.

Flavorful

Sounds to me that you've activated the console window's Mark and Paste commands somehow. Normally activate through the system menu (Alt + Space, Edit, Mark/Paste). That doesn't have anything to do with this code of course. – Batton

Thank you @HansPassant. I would not have thought of that. Apparently, Quick Edit Mode was set in the console defaults (Alt + Space, Defaults, Options, Edit Options, Quick Edit Mode) for some reason. Unchecking that resolved the issue. You should post your comment as an answer. – Flavorful

Answer 1

The issue was solved using Hans' comment above.

Sounds to me that you've activated the console window's Mark and Paste commands somehow. Normally activate through the system menu (Alt + Space, Edit, Mark/Paste). That doesn't have anything to do with this code of course.

Apparently, Quick Edit Mode was set in the console defaults (Alt + Space, Defaults, Options, Edit Options, Quick Edit Mode) for some reason. Unchecking that resolved the issue.

Flavorful

Answer 2

//call this class to disable quick edit mode.

public static void Main()
{
//disable console quick edit mode
 DisableConsoleQuickEdit.Go();

}



using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Threading.Tasks;


static class DisableConsoleQuickEdit
{

    const uint ENABLE_QUICK_EDIT = 0x0040;

    // STD_INPUT_HANDLE (DWORD): -10 is the standard input device.
    const int STD_INPUT_HANDLE = -10;

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle(int nStdHandle);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    static extern bool GetConsoleMode(IntPtr hConsoleHandle, out uint lpMode);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    static extern bool SetConsoleMode(IntPtr hConsoleHandle, uint dwMode);

    internal static bool Go()
    {

        IntPtr consoleHandle = GetStdHandle(STD_INPUT_HANDLE);

        // get current console mode
        uint consoleMode;
        if (!GetConsoleMode(consoleHandle, out consoleMode))
        {
            // ERROR: Unable to get console mode.
            return false;
        }

        // Clear the quick edit bit in the mode flags
        consoleMode &= ~ENABLE_QUICK_EDIT;

        // set the new mode
        if (!SetConsoleMode(consoleHandle, consoleMode))
        {
            // ERROR: Unable to set console mode
            return false;
        }

        return true;
    }
}

Reste