Weird foreground color issue with Cmder + PowerShell Core

[refactorsaurusrex]

Purpose of the issue

• Bug report (encountered problems/errors)
• Feature request (request for new functionality)
• Question

Description of the issue

Out of the box, running PowerShell with Cmder sets the foreground color to white:

Today I installed PowerShell Core and created a new Cmder task exactly like the default 'PowerShell as Admin task', but points to pwsh.exe instead of Powershell.exe:

*C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6\pwsh.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoLogo -NoProfile -NoExit -Command "Invoke-Expression '. ''%ConEmuDir%\..\profile.ps1'''"

For reasons I don't understand, the foreground color for the PowerShell Core window is green:

While trying to understand why, I spent some time fiddling with the following block of code contained in \vendor\profile.ps1:

[ScriptBlock]$CmderPrompt = {
  $Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "White"
  Write-Host $pwd.ProviderPath -NoNewLine -ForegroundColor Green
  checkGit($pwd.ProviderPath)
}

Here's where it gets weird. If I change that Write-Host statement to use -ForegroundColor White instead of Green, the foreground color remains permanently white. If I change it to Red, the foreground color remains permanently red. Even weirder: If I leave the original Write-Host statement alone (using the original Green color), but add an additional Write-Host statement above it without a Foregroundcolor parameter, the foreground color remains white. It's as though a Write-Host statement is required in order to maintain the state of $Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor.

Anyone else experiencing this oddity? Am I missing something stupid?

I tried this with Cmder 1.3.5 and 1.3.6 - same result.

---

Additional Examples:

Results in white foreground color:

[ScriptBlock]$CmderPrompt = {
  $Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "White"
  Write-Host $pwd.ProviderPath -NoNewLine -ForegroundColor White
  checkGit($pwd.ProviderPath)
}

Also results in white foreground color:

[ScriptBlock]$CmderPrompt = {
  $Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "White"
  Write-Host "blah"
  Write-Host $pwd.ProviderPath -NoNewLine -ForegroundColor Green
  checkGit($pwd.ProviderPath)
}

Results in red foreground color:

[ScriptBlock]$CmderPrompt = {
  $Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "White"
  Write-Host "blah" -ForegroundColor Red
  Write-Host $pwd.ProviderPath -NoNewLine -ForegroundColor Green
  checkGit($pwd.ProviderPath)
}

[crutchcorn]

Having the same issue myself on Windows 10 October update

[CAKEbuilder]

Same issue here. This is a problem on two separate machines of mine after updating with v1809 of Win10.

[refactorsaurusrex]

Ditto. After updating to the latest Windows 10 release, the foreground color is green both with PS5 and PS6.

[mattvperry]

The workaround I will use involves a unicode no width char:

[ScriptBlock]$CmderPrompt = {
  $Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "White"
  Write-Host -NoNewline "$([char]0x200B)"
  Write-Host $pwd.ProviderPath -NoNewLine -ForegroundColor Green
  checkGit($pwd.ProviderPath)
}

[chawyehsu]

Could you guys tell me if this issue would be gone after installing PSReadLine v1.2:

Install-Module -Name PSReadLine -RequiredVersion 1.2 -Scope CurrentUser -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

I guess it's a likely a complex issue of PSReadLine2 and Cmder, maybe related to PowerShell/PSReadLine#818.

Besides, thanks @mattvperry for the workaround! 👍

[crutchcorn]

@h404bi This seems to have fixed it for me.

[skycommand]

Thanks for the report, @refactorsaurusrex – it helped me fix two of my problems in one go. First, the color, and second, the absence of "PS" before the prompt. I added the third line, seen below, to the code:

[ScriptBlock]$CmderPrompt = {
    $Host.UI.RawUI.ForegroundColor = "White"
    Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility\Write-Host "PS " -NoNewline  # <!-- this line is added
    Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility\Write-Host $pwd.ProviderPath -NoNewLine -ForegroundColor Green
    checkGit($pwd.ProviderPath)
}