Conhost crashes on Windows 10

[BerndK-Str]

Conhost crashes:

ConhostCrash1.mp4

These are the issues that I saw using the UICatalog test project (compiled with version 2.4.7) on Windows 10 21H2 unpatched:

1. just starting UICatalog - The default driver (probably 'windows') just shows a black screen!
   running with '-d dotnet' it works better
2. simple resizement seems to work, but when resize hor+ver the task bar and the outer left part is covered by useless scollbars.
3. if I uncheck the option 'Wrap text output on resize' the application (or better the related conhost) crashes when resizing. There is a dead body in the Task-list.
4. even if that option is checked there is similar behavior on my application (when resizing), see picture. This time we can see a popup. Unfortunately I was not able to reproduce the exact behavior with UICatalog. No idea why, I would say that there is nothing special in my app. Did a lot of tests but did not find a real difference.

I have tested with AOT native compiled and also single file self-contained (.net core 10) on a Windows 10 21H2 unpatched VM (VirtualBox). I used version 2.4.7 and 2.4.17.
I'm pretty sure that the reason of all this is not a real bug in Terminal.Gui, but rather a weak implementation of the legacy conhost. Probably a race condition while writing into the buffer while this is being resized!? It was not reproducible on Win11 and not using Windows Terminal. I know that using the Terminal might be a workaround - but I want to just ship my app and it should also work on any Windows 10 without forcing the user to install additional stuff. Perhaps it is possible to have more tolerant implementation. For sure the real showstopper for me is point 3+4 - the crash (1+2 are only observed minor issues).

I also created a dump and tried to look into the threads, but with not enough inside knowledge to continue:

[tig]

Does this all reproduce using the dotnet driver? It's not clear from your description. Thanks.

[BerndK-Str]

Yes, it is reproducible using dotnet driver on Windows 10 21H2.
As mentioned, I was not able to test with 'windows' -> no output at all!
It is not reproducible on Windows 11 CMD window, where also 'windows' driver works.

[tig]

Ok, first i think we should explicitly not support the 'windows' driver downlevel on win10/conhost. Conhost is so bad that we need to focus our energies on one driver for it.

Second, we should look through the dotnet driver and see if it is doing anything that does not use pure dotnet console APIs when in conhost.

This lays the burden on the dotnet console APIs.

Question: can you require your users to use Windows terminal on win10?

[BerndK-Str]

Sure using Terminal is an option, however these medical devices are disconnected and installing Terminal disconnected is kind of a pain.
But I can understand that the usage of legacy stuff (even if they are supported till 2031) is not top Prio.

So if you define that conhost on Windows 10 is not supported, feel free to close this issue.