When you run a console application from visual studio the application run so fast and the console closes that you never see the output.

If you run the program without debugging, it will prompt you to "enter any key to continue".

If you are using a console application, and you use CTRL+F5 (in VS2008) you will get a "Press any key to continue . . . "

At least that's the way it's always worked for me.

Obviously, if you want to use debugging, then Console.ReadLine( ) is the preferred method.