Image rendering in Yazi on Windows

[Nico-Mayer]

The fix in #1736 works great on Unix-like systems, but image rendering is still broken on Windows with Rio 0.4.12.

I tested with the latest release, and Yazi image previews are still rendered incorrectly on Windows (see attached recording).

Aufzeichnung.2026-07-22.222256.mp4

Environment

Rio 0.4.12
Windows 11 (25H2)
Yazi 26.5.6

[raphamorim]

Investigated this. It's a different problem from #1736, so the fix is elsewhere.

#1736 was a platform-independent geometry fix (the whole-image-squeezed-into-one-cell bug). Your video shows a different symptom: the preview pane is empty (no image at all) plus grid/text corruption (stray characters, a shifted file list). That's the ConPTY passthrough gap, the same root cause as #729 (Sixel on Windows).

The in-box ConPTY that ships with most Windows builds is older than 1.22 and rewrites or strips the escape sequences image protocols use, and it mangles the multi-codepoint placeholder cells Yazi's kitty-graphics mode relies on. A modern ConPTY (1.22+, from the Windows Terminal project) does synchronous VT passthrough so those sequences reach Rio unmodified — which is how WezTerm and Windows Terminal support images. It's deployed as two files (conpty.dll + OpenConsole.exe) sitting next to the terminal executable; there is no magic flag.

#1764 makes Rio load such a sideloaded ConPTY securely and deterministically from its own directory. Could you help verify the mechanism? Even on Rio 0.4.12 today:

1. Download the Microsoft.Windows.Console.ConPTY NuGet package (a .nupkg is a zip).
2. Copy runtimes/win-x64/native/conpty.dll and build/native/runtimes/x64/OpenConsole.exe next to rio.exe.
3. Restart Rio and open Yazi.

If previews render correctly with those two files present, that confirms the fix, and the remaining work is just to bundle them in the Windows installer. Thanks!

[Nico-Mayer]

Can confirm this fixes the image rendering issue, but it introduces some scaling issues when the terminal is resized (see attached). This also happens even if Yazi has never been run in the current session.

output.mp4

[raphamorim]

hmmm lemme double check

[raphamorim]

Thanks for testing, great to have the image fix confirmed.

The resize/scaling artifact is a separate ConPTY behavior: with the newer sideloaded ConPTY, Rio was creating the pseudoconsole with no flags, so ConPTY reflowed and repainted its own buffer on resize and double-handled it against Rio's own grid layout, leaving the child's content in a stale sub-region after the window grew. #1764 now passes PSEUDOCONSOLE_RESIZE_QUIRK (the same flag WezTerm uses), which makes ConPTY defer the resize repaint to Rio.

Could you retest a build of #1764 with the same sideloaded conpty.dll + OpenConsole.exe in place? Please check both: (1) Yazi image previews still render, and (2) resizing the window now keeps content filling the whole grid. If both hold, the remaining work is just bundling those two files in the Windows installer so it works out of the box.

[Nico-Mayer]

Tested it with a build of #1764 and conpty.dll + OpenConsole.exe

1. Yazi still works
2. Resolution issue is gone

However, resizing leaves black space when dragging windows larger and cuts off characters when making them smaller. Also, closing a TUI application like Yazi does not remove the characters that were drawn by this tool. For better understanding, I have attached the example again. :)

output.mp4

edit: in the video it looks that the images are not displayed, witch is not the case this works, has to be related to some bad recording or ffmpeg compression of the video

[raphamorim]

Both remaining symptoms trace to the same root, and it's the ConPTY binary version, not Rio.

The early 1.22 ConPTY builds (1.22.2502.x) shipped two regressions from the "Goodbye VtEngine" rewrite that match exactly what you're seeing:

• Alt-screen not restored on TUI exit, microsoft/terminal #17817, fixed by PR #17853 and serviced into later builds.
• Resize gaps / cutoff, the buffer re-emission regressions tracked in #17643 / #15976.

WezTerm hit the identical two bugs with the same early build and fixed them by bumping the bundled pair to 1.24.2604.02001 (wezterm#7461 to #7774, which specifically fixed the TUI-exit case). So the fix is a known-good ConPTY version.

Could you check which conpty.dll/OpenConsole.exe version you sideloaded, and retest with exactly 1.24.2604.02001 from the Microsoft.Windows.Console.ConPTY NuGet? (Right-click conpty.dll to Properties to Details shows the version.) If that resolves both the alt-screen leftover and the resize gaps, the merge-blocking fix is to bundle that exact version in Rio's installer.

I've also added a Rio-side belt-and-suspenders on the branch (d761f8f): mark the full grid damaged on resize so newly exposed cells always repaint even if ConPTY doesn't. Thanks again for the detailed testing.

[raphamorim]

To make the ConPTY-version root cause fully concrete, here are the upstream references (all verified), both of your remaining symptoms are documented ConPTY regressions with exact matches:

Alt-screen content not restored on TUI exit

• microsoft/terminal#17817, "Original console buffer is not restored when closing a secondary one"
• Fixed by microsoft/terminal#17853, "Restore contents when a screen info is closed" (Closes #17817)

Resize gaps / cutoff

• microsoft/terminal discussion#16879, "Issuing ResizePseudoConsole truncating lines if resizing from smaller initial size to larger one" (this is your exact symptom)

Both came from the same rewrite

• microsoft/terminal#17510, "A minor ConPTY refactoring: Goodbye VtEngine Edition" (the passthrough rewrite that unblocked images and destabilized buffer/resize re-emission)
• microsoft/terminal#17643, "Known unresolved issues after removing VtEngine / adding VT passthrough"
• microsoft/terminal#15976, "[megathread] ConPTY buffer gets out-of-sync"

WezTerm hit the identical two bugs and fixed them with a version bump

• wezterm#7461, "Openconsole 1.22.2502 is bugged."
• wezterm#7774, "Update bundled Windows ConPTY pair to 1.24.260402001" (their bump body notes it fixed the TUI-exit FailFast)

So these are not Rio bugs, the fixes were serviced into later ConPTY builds. Retesting with 1.24.2604.02001 should clear both. (I dropped the speculative Rio-side resize repaint change I mentioned earlier, it wasn't the fix, since the terminal marking its own grid damaged doesn't change what ConPTY re-emits; the version bump is the real fix.)

[raphamorim]

Both PRs are up:

• windows: sideload modern conpty for image support + resize quirk #1764, the loader contract plus the RESIZE_QUIRK flag (Rio already prefers a co-located conpty.dll, so this makes the sideload deterministic and fixes the content-confined-on-resize case).
• bundle modern conpty on windows for image support #1767, bundling a modern ConPTY (conpty.dll + OpenConsole.exe, 1.24.260710001, MIT) into the installer and portable zip so image support works out of the box with no manual sideload.

Note the bundled version is 1.24.260710001, not the 1.24.2604.02001 I mentioned earlier: that exact build was unlisted from NuGet, and 2607 is a later stable in the same line that carries the alt-screen-restore (#17853) and resize fixes. So if you retest with 1.24.260710001 and both the alt-screen leftover and the resize gaps are gone, that confirms #1767 ships the right version. Thanks again for all the testing.

[Nico-Mayer]

Just to clarify, i sideloaded both

• conpty.ddl version = 1.24.2607.10001
• OpenConsole.exe version = 1.24.2607.10001

with a current build of of branch conpty-sideload-windows #1764

issues seems to be still present.

[raphamorim]

Hmmmm I will take a further look

[raphamorim]

Hmmmm I will take a further look