Terminal doesn't get focus when configured as default terminal and console app launched from Visual Studio

[toptensoftware]

Windows Terminal version

1.11.2921.0

Windows build number

10.0.22000.348

Other Software

Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2019
Version 16.11.5
VisualStudio.16.Release/16.11.5+31729.503
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.8.04161

Installed Version: Community

Visual C++ 2019 00435-60000-00000-AA754
Microsoft Visual C++ 2019

.NET Core Debugging with WSL 1.0
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ASP.NET and Web Tools 2019 16.11.75.64347
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ASP.NET Web Frameworks and Tools 2019 16.11.75.64347
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Azure App Service Tools v3.0.0 16.11.75.64347
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Azure Functions and Web Jobs Tools 16.11.75.64347
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C# Tools 3.11.0-4.21403.6+ae1fff344d46976624e68ae17164e0607ab68b10
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Common Azure Tools 1.10
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IntelliCode Extension 1.0
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Microsoft Azure Tools for Visual Studio 2.9
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Microsoft Continuous Delivery Tools for Visual Studio 0.4
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Microsoft JVM Debugger 1.0
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Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Containers 1.2
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Microsoft Visual Studio VC Package 1.0
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SQL Server Data Tools 16.0.62107.28140
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TypeScript Tools 16.0.30526.2002
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Visual Basic Tools 3.11.0-4.21403.6+ae1fff344d46976624e68ae17164e0607ab68b10
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Visual F# Tools 16.11.0-beta.21322.6+488cc578cafcd261d90d748d8aaa7b8b091232dc
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Steps to reproduce

1. Configure Windows Terminal as the default terminal application
2. Start Visual Studio 2019
3. Create a new console mode app (eg: "Hello World")
4. Run the program (without debugging)

Expected Behavior

Windows Terminal to appear with focus

Actual Behavior

Windows Terminal appears with the program output however it doesn't have focus requiring extra Alt+Tab or mouse click before "press any key to close this window" works.

[zadjii-msft]

Huh. Interesting. I bet VS doesn't know what to do when the initial conhost process doesn't create a HWND that it can bring to the top. This might be related to #2988, but hopefully there's a simpler workaround for defterm.

[jessekingf]

Confirmed this is an issue on VS2022 on Windows 11.

[eduarddejong]

Well actually, Visual Studio should get the focus back! Because this is also what happens when I use the default ConHost! This allows for immediately continue to work on your code and repeatedly restarting new debug sessions, which all reuse the same console/terminal again (which is absolutely great because it enables placing your console/terminal window on a fixed position on the screen, really great when using multiple monitors).

However somehow focus goes wrong in the case of the Windows Terminal, the focus ends up kind of nowhere, which completely breaks this great working experience. Now we need to use the mouse to focus back to Visual Studio to continue working. While I never want to use the mouse more than strictly necessary.

What is so fustrating is that I really like the Terminal and use it a lot, but the Visual Studio focus problem keeps me back from using the Terminal as the default console application.

When it happens and I look at the taskbar, I see that it's the Terminal which stays the active window, but somehow the focus is not actually inside it anymore or something, really strange.
This is also why I suspect that it's much more likely a problem of the Terminal and not of Visual Studio. But I am not sure of course.

Thinking further about this...
The best experience would be when we also could configure Visual Studio to either give the focus away or to take it back, apart from the existing option to automatically close the console after debugging. But that is something which we should ask the Visual Studio team instead of course.
Maybe both teams can start working together to work towards the best combined experience. Just an idea. :)

[acampbellblack]

I have found a fix for this (works for me anyway). In my Windows Terminal settings if I change "Default terminal application" from "Windows Terminal" to "Let Windows decide", the focus is switched to the terminal when debugging from Visual Studio. I am running Visual Studio Community 2022 on Windows 11.

Edit: Sometimes it still doesn't switch focus to the terminal even with this setting...

[jjmonteiro]

toggle the focus mode did it for me. however it will remove the top bar and the console tabs.
reverting this change will bring back the top bar and tabs, fixing the focus issue. 🙃