ColoredConsole - Log message not colored "strange characters" before and after message

[DaveSenn]

NLog version:
NLog: 4.7.10
NLog.Extensions.Hosting: 1.7.3

Platform:
.NET 5 (5.0.7) - Console Application
Win10x64 21H1

Current NLog config (xml or C#, if relevant)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<nlog
  xmlns="http://www.nlog-project.org/schemas/NLog.xsd"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  autoReload="true"
  internalLogFile="C:\Log\App\NlogInternalLog.log"
  internalLogToConsole="false"
  internalLogToConsoleError="false"
  internalLogLevel="Warn">

  <extensions>
    <add assembly="NLog.Web.AspNetCore" />
  </extensions>

  <variable name="appName" value="App" />
  <variable name="logDirRoot" value="C:\Log\" />

  <targets>
    <!-- async file target for defaultFile  -->
    <target name="detailLogTarget" xsi:type="AsyncWrapper" overflowAction="Block" queueLimit="50000"
            batchSize="1000" timeToSleepBetweenBatches="0">
      <target xsi:type="File"
              optimizeBufferReuse="true"
              archiveAboveSize="20971520"
              archiveEvery="None"
              archiveNumbering="Sequence"
              fileAttributes="NotContentIndexed"
              encoding="utf-8"
              writeBom="true"
              lineEnding="LF"
              keepFileOpen="true"
              openFileCacheTimeout="30"
              concurrentWrites="false"
              bufferSize="65536"
              autoFlush="true"
              cleanupFileName="false"
              fileName="${logDirRoot}/${appName}/${appName}_${machinename}_${assembly-version}_${date:format=yyyy-MM-dd}.log"
              layout="${longdate}  ${pad:padding=5:padCharacter=0:inner=${threadid}}  !${pad:padding=-5:padCharacter= :inner=${level}}  ${message}  [${logger:shortName=true}]  ${event-properties:EventId} ${event-properties:EventId_Id}  ${aspnet-request-method} ${aspnet-request-url} ${aspnet-request-querystring} ${activityid:whenEmpty=${mdlc:item=RequestId:whenEmpty=${aspnet-TraceIdentifier}}} ${aspnet-TraceIdentifier:ignoreActivityId=true} ${aspnet-request-ip}
${onexception:inner=${newline}${exception:innerFormat=ToString,StackTrace:maxInnerExceptionLevel=20:format=ToString,StackTrace}}">
      </target>
    </target>
    <!--End async file target for defaultFile-->

    <!-- Console target -->
    <target name="consoleAsyncWrapper" xsi:type="AsyncWrapper" overflowAction="Block" queueLimit="50000"
            batchSize="1000" timeToSleepBetweenBatches="0">
      <target xsi:type="ColoredConsole" optimizeBufferReuse="true" detectConsoleAvailable="true"
              enableAnsiOutput="true"
              layout="${pad:padding=3:padCharacter=0:inner=${threadid}}  ${date:format=ss.ffff}  !${pad:padding=-5:padCharacter= :inner=${level}}  ${message}  [${logger:shortName=true}]
${onexception:inner=${newline}${exception:innerFormat=ToString,StackTrace:maxInnerExceptionLevel=20:format=ToString,StackTrace}}">
      </target>
    </target>
  </targets>

  <!--All logging rules (mapping between loggers and targets)-->
  <rules>
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Debug" writeTo="detailLogTarget"></logger>
    <logger name="*" minlevel="Debug" writeTo="consoleAsyncWrapper"></logger>
  </rules>
</nlog>

- Did you checked the Internal log?
No errors in log.

- Are there any workarounds? yes/no
I don't know any.

- What is the current result?
When running the application from VS or using the standard windows cmd/powershell shell the log messages are not displayed in color (see screenshot):

Please note the "←[35m0" and "←[0m" at the start and end of the log entry.

Coloring works in ConEmu:

- What is the expected result?
Color output should work in all shells.

[welcome]

Hi! Thanks for opening your first issue here! Please make sure to follow the issue template - so we could help you better!

[snakefoot]

You can enable global support for ANSI color codes by enabling Windows 10 VT (Virtual Terminal):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console]
"VirtualTerminalLevel"=dword:00000001

Alternative your application can call EnableVirtualTerminal() very early in the application:

    static class WindowsConsole
    {
        public static void EnableVirtualTerminal()
        {
            if (!RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows))
                return;

            var stdout = GetStdHandle(StandardOutputHandleId);
            if (stdout != (IntPtr)InvalidHandleValue && GetConsoleMode(stdout, out var mode))
            {
                SetConsoleMode(stdout, mode | EnableVirtualTerminalProcessingMode);
            }
        }

        const int StandardOutputHandleId = -11;
        const uint EnableVirtualTerminalProcessingMode = 4;
        const long InvalidHandleValue = -1;

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle(int handleId);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        static extern bool GetConsoleMode(IntPtr handle, out uint mode);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        static extern bool SetConsoleMode(IntPtr handle, uint mode);
    }

But yes it is very annoying ANSI-Coloring is not just working out of the box everywhere. Maybe Windows 11 will be different.

See also: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/console-virtual-terminal-sequences

[DaveSenn]

I was still bothered by this "not working"... I found my problem:

enableAnsiOutput="true" was set on my target... setting this value to false results in correct output coloring without changing anything else.
I also tested the regestry key...which works as well

[snakefoot]

Yes if you stop using enableAnsiOutput="true" then it will fallback to legacy Windows Console Coloring.