CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++winapiconsole
Idiot Boy
Idiot Boy

Reputation: 51

Is there a way to create multiple consoles in C++?

It seems all the "Multiple Consoles in C++" questions on this site are either 7 years old and no longer work, or are in C instead of C++. I've searched the web for any APIs for something of that nature. Is there a way specifically to create multiple consoles in C++?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1557

Answers (1)

drescherjm
drescherjm

Reputation: 10827

The documentation here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/attachconsole says no you can't do that within a single process.

A process can be attached to at most one console. If the calling process is already attached to a console, the error code returned is ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED (5).

This also repeats the theme: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/allocconsole

A process can be associated with only one console, so the AllocConsole function fails if the calling process already has a console. A process can use the FreeConsole function to detach itself from its current console, then it can call AllocConsole to create a new console or AttachConsole to attach to another console.

As Remy Lebeau mentioned in a comment, you can however spawn additional child processes each having their own console windows. See the CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE flag of CreateProcess here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/process-creation-flags

Upvotes: 2

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