External dialogs appear behind VSCode when launched from powershell

[TylerLeonhardt]

• VSCode Version: Code 1.19.2 (490ef76, 2018-01-10T15:55:03.538Z)
• OS Version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.16299
• Extensions:

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
csharp	ms-	1.13.1
PowerShell	ms-	1.5.1

---

Steps to Reproduce:

With the AzureRM powershell module:

1. in the default powershell terminal run: Login-AzureRmAccount
2. Notice the dialog appear behind VSCode:
   

Reproduces without extensions: Yes

I'm also curious if there's a way for an extension like the PowerShell extension for VSCode to bring UI to the top, over VSCode. Often UI generated by other programs (debug extension, user programs) show up behind VSCode and it confuses users (causes bug submissions).

This issue was sparked by:
PowerShell/vscode-powershell#1175

[bpasero]

Reading your description it seems that the issue originates from an extension and not VS Code itself. Thereby I will close this issue and kindly ask you to report this issue against the extension repository.

Most extensions are on GitHub as well so it should be easy to file it against the extension. If you open an extension on the market place, click on the Support link to find out more.

Thanks again for your feedback!

[TylerLeonhardt]

This was closed by mistake it would seem.

I stated in my repro steps:
"In the default powershell terminal". In other words, the one that ships with VSCode itself.

I was also just curious from an extension standpoint. That part is more of an aside to the actual issue.

[Tyriar]

Looks like this is related to electron, I haven't experienced the issue personally.

[TylerLeonhardt]

@Tyriar here's an easier repro that doesn't require the Azure cmdlets.

Get-Process | Out-GridView

Can you repro that?

Note: that will only work on Windows and with Windows PowerShell.

[Tyriar]

Yes I can repro with that, thanks. I still think it's an Electron issue though

[chrmarti]

Some observations:

• Opening an external link from the release notes editor opens Edge in front.
• Opening the device login from the Azure Account extension opens Edge in front.
• Opening a link (Start-Process "http://www.microsoft.com/") from PowerShell in the integrated terminal opens Edge behind.
• Opening a link (Start-Process "http://www.microsoft.com/") from PowerShell in the external terminal opens Edge in front.

[corbob]

I have managed to find these Electron issues that sound related, but not completely sure:

electron/electron#11989

electron/electron#6081

[kowax]

Hi,
I found a lot of threads about the same issue, most of them is closed as related/duplicated issues but nothing what could explain/help or tell what to do and where is the problem. I have newly installed VS Code with powershell extension and observe same issue no matter if I run "login-azurermaccount" or "Get-Process | Out-GridView" all windows which should appear in new window are in the background. In Powershell ISE it works without any issues.

VS Code:
Version: 1.30.2 (user setup)
Commit: 61122f8
Date: 2019-01-07T22:54:13.295Z
Electron: 2.0.12
Chrome: 61.0.3163.100
Node.js: 8.9.3
V8: 6.1.534.41
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.17763

Extension:
powershell extension: 1.11.0

PC:
windows 10 ver. 1809 build 17763.253

Please, could somebody help?

Thank you.

[jeremyciak]

Any update on this? I am experiencing the same issue now myself with trying to implement a user-friendly Out-GridView step in a PowerShell driven process.

[JanVinterberg]

Is this dead or still being investigated?

[cbailiss]

Unless someone from Microsoft is able to confirm that they own this issue, it seems we must unfortunately conclude it is in the "too hard to solve" category / effectively dead.

[rzhao271]

Looks like the upstream issue's been fixed: microsoft/terminal#2988.

[bmustari]

For what it's worth I can confirm that this issue of dialogs appearing behind VSCode is happening on Linux as well(Jammy 22.04). This also seems to be unrelated to the terminal. If I create a new .txt for instance(ctrl-n) and try to save it(ctrl-shift-s), the dialog for save-as is nowhere to be seen, assuming VSC is fullscreen. I also use two monitors and thought perhaps it was related until I saw this issue here.
To give a bit more info, this only started happening sometime within the last 2-3 updates to VSCode. I was about to just revert to an earlier version since this is driving me mad, but I decided to search a bit and found this issue.
I have been happily using this editor for a few years now and it has been quite nice and productive, this dialog issue is enough to make me switch editors or revert to an old version and turn auto-updates off. I really hope it can be fixed.
EDIT:
Wow, I just saw the date of this original issue... maybe something else is going on here but for me this issue appeared within the last month, perhaps two updates ago and I haven't added extensions or anything different for the past year.

[rzhao271]

@bmustari this issue has to do with Windows. The Linux issue you're talking about is likely #146422.

[Tyriar]

Looks like this is fixed upstream, so you should just need to wait for a new version of Windows with the fixed conpty.