How to keep the console window open in Visual C++?

Start the project with Ctrl+F5 instead of just F5.

The console window will now stay open with the Press any key to continue . . . message after the program exits.

Note that this requires the Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE) linker option, which you can enable as follows:

1. Open up your project, and go to the Solution Explorer. If you're following along with me in K&R, your "Solution" will be 'hello' with 1 project under it, also 'hello' in bold.
2. Right click on the 'hello" (or whatever your project name is.)
3. Choose "Properties" from the context menu.
4. Choose Configuration Properties>Linker>System.
5. For the "Subsystem" property in the right-hand pane, click the drop-down box in the right hand column.
6. Choose "Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE)"
7. Click Apply, wait for it to finish doing whatever it does, then click OK. (If "Apply" is grayed out, choose some other subsystem option, click Apply, then go back and apply the console option. My experience is that OK by itself won't work.)

CTRL-F5 and the subsystem hints work together; they are not separate options.

(Courtesy of DJMorreTX from http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vcprerelease/thread/21073093-516c-49d2-81c7-d960f6dc2ac6)

The standard way is cin.get() before your return statement.

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    cout << "Hello World";
    cin.get();
    return 0;
}

Put a breakpoint on the return line.

You are running it in the debugger, right?

Another option is to use

#include <process.h>
system("pause");

Though this is not very portable because it will only work on Windows, but it will automatically print

Press any key to continue...

As some have already pointed out, Zoidbergs solution does not attach the debugger, which is something you usually don't want.

The best option imo is to configure your VS accordingly (from VS 2017 onwards), by going to Tools > Options > Debugging > General. There you uncheck "Automatically close the console when debugging stops" (at the very bottom), which is probably checked in your case.

You can use cin.get(); or cin.ignore(); just before your return statement to avoid the console window from closing.

int main()
{
    //...
    getchar();
    return 0;
}

cin.get(), or system("PAUSE"). I haven't heard you can use return(0);

My 2 Cents:

Choice 1: Add a breakpoint at the end of main()

Choice 2: Add this code, right before the return 0;:

std::cout << "Press ENTER to continue..."; //So the User knows what to do
std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limits<std::streamsize>::max(), '\n');

You need to include <iomanip> for std::numeric_limits

Another option:

#ifdef _WIN32
#define MAINRET system("pause");return 0
#else
#define MAINRET return 0
#endif

In main:

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
    MAINRET;
}

Just after your includes YW std::cin.clear(); // reset any error flags std::cin.ignore(std::numeric_limitsstd::streamsize::max(), '\n'); // ignore any characters in the input buffer until we find an enter character std::cin.get(); // get one more char from the user