Vscode-powershell: Unexpected characters in VSCode PS Integrated shell commands

[ZZStoner]

Issue Description

After upgrading the PS Extension in VS Code to 2020.4.0, I noticed the PS Integrated Shell showing garbage characters when trying to type any commands.

Example showing strange extra characters after only typing dir:

Attached Logs

_Note to Team: The README link to the Reporting Problems below returns a 404 Not Found._

Follow the instructions in the README about
capturing and sending logs.

Environment Information

Visual Studio Code

| Name | Version |
| --- | --- |
| Operating System | Windows_NT x64 6.3.9600 |
| VSCode | 1.44.1|
| PowerShell Extension Version | 2020.4.0 |

PowerShell Information

|Name|Value|
|---|---|
|PSVersion|5.1.14409.1018|
|PSEdition|Desktop|
|PSCompatibleVersions|1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 5.1.14409.1018|
|BuildVersion|10.0.14409.1018|
|CLRVersion|4.0.30319.42000|
|WSManStackVersion|3.0|
|PSRemotingProtocolVersion|2.3|
|SerializationVersion|1.1.0.1|

Visual Studio Code Extensions

Visual Studio Code Extensions(Click to Expand)

|Extension|Author|Version|
|---|---|---|
|csharp|ms-dotnettools|1.21.17|
|gc-excelviewer|GrapeCity|2.1.34|
|kuskus-extensions-pack|rosshamish|1.0.1|
|kuskus-kusto-color-themes|rosshamish|0.1.0|
|kuskus-kusto-language-server|rosshamish|1.0.1|
|kuskus-kusto-syntax-highlighting|rosshamish|1.1.8|
|material-icon-theme|PKief|4.0.1|
|mssql|ms-mssql|1.9.0|
|powershell|ms-vscode|2020.4.0|
|rainbow-csv|mechatroner|1.6.0|
|team|ms-vsts|1.161.0|

[TylerLeonhardt]

Hi @ZZStoner I'm having trouble repro'ing this. Can you comment out everything in your $PROFILE and see if this still repros?

[ZZStoner]

Currently with v2020.4.0:

I cleared out my Microsoft.VSCode_profile.ps1 (well, it only has a single line which is a comment)
Then reloaded VS Code. It still reproed.
I then chose to downgrade to v2020.3.0

Downgraded to v2020.3.0:

The PS Profile is empty.
Typing the first command worked as expected with no artifacts...

I closed and reopened VS Code to make sure things worked consistently.
I then chose to upgrade back to v2020.4.0

Upgraded back to v2020.4.0 again:

The PS Profile is empty.
Still have crazy artifacts while typing.

Potentially related:

I noticed the garbage text seems to have the same format as the properties from Get-PSReadLineOption.

Sample from Get-PSReadLineOption:

ParameterColor                         : [90m"$([char]0x1b)[90m"[0m
PredictionColor                        : [38;5;238m"$([char]0x1b)[38;5;238m"[0m
SelectionColor                         : [30;47m"$([char]0x1b)[30;47m"[0m

The value of PredictionColor is interesting because the "238m" is also seen in my snips.

[TylerLeonhardt]

Ah this is the new prediction feature in PSReadLine.

@daxian-dbw can you take a look at this?

[daxian-dbw]

Sample from Get-PSReadLineOption:

ParameterColor                         : [90m"$([char]0x1b)[90m"[0m
PredictionColor                        : [38;5;238m"$([char]0x1b)[38;5;238m"[0m
SelectionColor                         : [30;47m"$([char]0x1b)[30;47m"[0m

This indicates that the VT100 escape sequences are not correctly handled by the VS Code terminal.
@TylerLeonhardt are you aware of any issues of the VS Code terminal related to VT100 support?

[TylerLeonhardt]

Hmm they should be handled correctly... @Tyriar do you have any thoughts?

@ZZStoner what version of Windows are you on?

[dnelson6]

I am also experiencing this same garbage text. Downgraded to v2020.3.0 and all is well.

Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion' | select EditionID, ProductName, CurrentBuildNumber

EditionID      ProductName                     CurrentBuildNumber
---------      -----------                     ------------------
ServerStandard Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard 9600 

[Tyriar]

If the terminal is printing then the terminal is likely not getting the escape character. You can check exactly when the terminal gets by following this https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Terminal-Issues#enabling-escape-sequence-logging

[ZZStoner]

To follow up, I am also using Windows 2012 R2.

[TylerLeonhardt]

Just to get you unblocked... you can remove this folder:

C:\Users\[YOUR USER]\.vscode\extensions\ms-vscode.powershell-2020.4.0\modules\PSReadLine\

NOTE: If you're on insiders it's \.vscode-insiders\

If your console doesn't give you syntax highlighting, simply reinstall PSReadLine the normal way:

Install-Module PSReadLine -Force -AllowClobber

[ZZStoner]

Thanks. The workaround unblocked me.

[Schwanowski]

I have had the same issue and the workaround worked for me too.

[merlinfrombelgium]

Install-Module PSReadLine -Force -AllowClober

powershell Install-Module : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'AllowClober'.

Serves me right for copy-pasting code from a forum thread 🤣