Preventing console window from closing on Visual Studio C/C++ Console application

If you run without debugging (Ctrl+F5) then by default it prompts your to press return to close the window. If you want to use the debugger, you should put a breakpoint on the last line.

Right click on your project

Properties > Configuration Properties > Linker > System

Select Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE) in SubSystem option or you can just type Console in the text field!

Now try it...it should work

Here is a way for C/C++:

#include <stdlib.h>

#ifdef _WIN32
    #define WINPAUSE system("pause")
#endif

Put this at the top of your program, and IF it is on a Windows system (#ifdef _WIN32), then it will create a macro called WINPAUSE. Whenever you want your program to pause, call WINPAUSE; and it will pause the program, using the DOS command. For other systems like Unix/Linux, the console should not quit on program exit anyway.