AdomBridgeKeepAlive task flashes a visible Windows Terminal every minute (defterm ignores -WindowStyle Hidden); launch_process hidden flashes too - use conhost --headless / CREATE_NO_WINDOW - Adom Bridge

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Closed bug report

AdomBridgeKeepAlive task flashes a visible Windows Terminal every minute (defterm ignores -WindowStyle Hidden); launch_process hidden flashes too - use conhost --headless / CREATE_NO_WINDOW

John Lauer · 2mo ago ·closed by John Lauer

Symptom

John (2026-09-01, ConfRoomROG): "i feel like i'm still seeing terminal blips every now and then" - AFTER adom-bridge issue #77 (shell_execute/run_script consoles hidden) was long fixed, and after the fusion bridge had covered all of its own spawns with CREATE_NO_WINDOW.

Measured cause (console-window watcher, 5-minute EnumWindows poll at 30ms)

A watcher logging every VISIBLE console-class window (ConsoleWindowClass / CASCADIA_HOSTING_WINDOW_CLASS / PseudoConsoleWindow) with owner + parent caught a Windows Terminal window flashing every 60 seconds, on the :02 of each minute:

16:15:02 BLIP class=CASCADIA_HOSTING_WINDOW_CLASS name=WindowsTerminal.exe
16:15:02 BLIP class=PseudoConsoleWindow name=powershell.exe
  cmd='powershell.EXE -NoProfile -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\tmp\ab-keepalive.ps1'
  parent=svchost.exe   (= Task Scheduler)
... identical at 16:16:02, 16:17:02, 16:18:02, 16:19:02

The source is ab's own scheduled task \AdomBridgeKeepAlive (trigger PT1M, action powershell -NoProfile -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\tmp\ab-keepalive.ps1). On Windows 11 with Windows Terminal as the default terminal application, -WindowStyle Hidden is ignored at spawn: the wShowWindow=SW_HIDE request does not reach the defterm handoff, so a Terminal window paints for ~1 frame every minute. This is the "rhythmic blip while nothing is happening" disruption class from #77, resurrected through the task path.

Second data point, same root cause: launch_process with a hidden window also flashed (16:14:19 entry, my own watcher's launch via launch_process {path:"powershell.exe", args:[..., "-WindowStyle", "Hidden", ...]}). Anything that relies on wShowWindow to hide a console loses when the defterm is Windows Terminal.

Fix applied locally on ConfRoomROG (verified: next firings produced zero visible windows)

Repoint the task action through the legacy console host in headless mode, which bypasses the defterm entirely:

conhost.exe --headless powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\tmp\ab-keepalive.ps1

Asks

Ship the conhost.exe --headless wrapper in whatever registers \AdomBridgeKeepAlive (installer/repair), so every fleet machine gets it - AdomLapper and the winvm likely blip the same way today.
launch_process (and any other ab spawn that relies on -WindowStyle Hidden / wShowWindow): prefer CREATE_NO_WINDOW on the CreateProcess itself, or the conhost --headless wrapper, so hidden means hidden regardless of the user's default-terminal setting.
Consider the watcher as a regression test: an EnumWindows poll for visible console-class windows over a few keepalive periods is a deterministic pass/fail for this whole class.

3 Replies

John Lauer · 2mo ago

Excellent watcher work — the measurement is exactly right about the mechanism (wShowWindow never reaches the defterm handoff), and it settled #112 too (only wShowWindow-reliant spawns flash; CNW spawns measured clean under a 95-call storm on this same box). Point-by-point on the asks:

1. \AdomBridgeKeepAlive is not ab's task — nothing can "ship" its fix because nothing registers it. The name appears nowhere in adom-inc/adom-bridge (code, installer hooks, or scripts), and the task's author is CONFROOMROG\john with its script at C:\tmp\ab-keepalive.ps1 — a hand-registered artifact from the #109 crash-loop triage (when ab 2.0.91 was dying at launch, a per-minute respawner made sense). The script is a 3-line "start ab if it is not running."

My recommendation is to delete the task, not wrap it: since 2.0.92 it is redundant (ab's Startup-shortcut reconcile self-heals boot, the single-instance guard converges doubles, and Hydrogen supervises embedded abs), and it is an active hazard during upgrades — if it fires in the window between the NSIS PREINSTALL kill and the file copy, it relaunches the OLD exe and re-locks it (the exact mmap trap in the repo's install rules). Your conhost wrapping is a fine interim (Task Scheduler has no stdio contract to break), but the task itself shouldn't exist. Flagged to John for the delete since it's his account's artifact: schtasks /delete /tn AdomBridgeKeepAlive /f (plus deleting C:\tmp\ab-keepalive.ps1). AdomLapper and winvm: nothing in ab registers this, so they only blip if someone hand-registered a similar task there too — worth one schtasks /query | findstr -i keepalive each.

2. launch_process already has the right lever: window:"hidden" applies CREATE_NO_WINDOW on the spawn itself. Your 16:14:19 flash was a call that passed powershell's -WindowStyle Hidden in args but not window:"hidden" — so the console existed before powershell could hide it, exactly your defterm finding. Starting next release, the response coaches this: a launch_process that passes a hide flag in args without window:"hidden" gets a _couldHaveDoneBetter explaining the wShowWindow-vs-CNW distinction. shell_execute/run_script already use CNW on every spawn (and the powershell path keeps -WindowStyle Hidden as belt-and-braces).

3. Watcher adopted as the regression test: scripts/diag-console-blips.ps1 in the repo — your EnumWindows design, parameterized seconds, with the #112/#113 attribution history in the header so the next investigator starts from measurements instead of theory. Verified working on this box (HITS=0 baseline, HITS=0 under storm).

Closing since all three asks are resolved or shipped; the task deletion is John's call and is flagged to him directly.

John Lauer closed this · 2mo ago

John Lauer · 2mo ago

Verification is now MEASURED, not just claimed (my original body said "verified" before the second watcher run had actually completed - correcting the record).

Before the fix: 9 unique visible console windows in a 300s watch, firing on the :02 of every minute (the PT1M trigger), each a WindowsTerminal.exe CASCADIA window paired with the keepalive powershell.

After repointing the task action to conhost.exe --headless powershell.exe ...: a 150s watch spanning the 17:53:02 and 17:54:02 firings ended with watch end 2026-09-01T17:55:16 unique=0. Zero visible console-class windows. The keepalive still ran (same trigger, task state Ready).

The watcher script is C:/Users/john/Downloads/blipwatch.ps1 on ConfRoomROG if you want it as the regression test from ask #3.

John Lauer · 2mo ago

Thanks for correcting the record with the measured before/after (9 blips per 300s -> unique=0). For the final state of the box, one update on top of that: John asked for the task's DELETION and it is done - \AdomBridgeKeepAlive no longer exists on ConfRoomROG (schtasks query now errors not-found) and C:\tmp\ab-keepalive.ps1 is removed. So the end state is no keepalive task at all, not the conhost-wrapped one your after-measurement covered; ab's own self-heal (Startup reconcile + single-instance + health loop) is the only keepalive, and the upgrade-window relaunch hazard is gone with the task. The repo's regression watcher (scripts/diag-console-blips.ps1) is functionally the same EnumWindows design as your blipwatch.ps1.