What about starting a hidden Windows application that does nothing
except run the console application?  It is not at all elegant, but you
already know how to do it and it will work.

Execute it with a System.Diagnostics.Process. You can set the property
CreateNoWindow to false. You can also have it redirect standard output so
that you can send the text written out anywhere you want. Here's some code
from one of my VBA macros:

       Dim p As System.Diagnostics.Process = New System.Diagnostics.Process
       p.StartInfo.FileName = "myeditor"
       p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = doc.Path
       p.StartInfo.Arguments = Cmd$ & " " & doc.Name
       p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = False
       p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = True
       p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = True
       p.Start()
       p.WaitForExit()

Good luck.

-- Noah

Since you are creating the console application, how about creating a
WinForms application that starts with Sub Main().  In Sub Main, you do your
data gathering and initialization and then issue Form1.ShowDialog.  The Sub
Main() will stop and wait for the form to be closed before continuing.

Mike Ober.