Sogou IME candidate/composition UI invisible in Windows Terminal Stable 1.23.2512.16003 (Preview 1.24 works)

[CNTianQi233]

Windows Terminal version

1.23.2512.16003

Windows build number

10.0.26100.4351

Other Software

• Sogou Pinyin IME 15.12.0.2761 (SGMyInput.exe / SogouImeBroker.exe / SGTool.exe)
• Windows Terminal Preview (for A/B comparison): 1.24.2509.25002
• Microsoft Pinyin IME: works normally in the same Terminal Stable session

Steps to reproduce

1. Install and keep both Windows Terminal Stable and Windows Terminal Preview on the same machine.
2. Open Windows Terminal Stable (1.23.2512.16003). Ensure it is NOT running elevated.
3. Click inside the terminal content area so the caret is in the terminal.
4. Switch to Sogou IME (Chinese mode) and type pinyin, e.g. "nihao" or "ceshi".
5. Observe that the candidate/composition UI is not visible. However, pressing number keys / Enter still commits the converted Chinese text into the terminal.
6. Repeat the same steps in Windows Terminal Preview (1.24.2509.25002): the candidate/composition UI appears normally.

Expected Behavior

Sogou IME candidate/composition window should appear near the caret in the terminal, consistent with other Win32 text input controls and consistent with Windows Terminal Preview on the same machine.

Actual Behavior

In Windows Terminal Stable, when the terminal content area has focus, Sogou IME candidate/composition UI becomes invisible (no candidate list / no composition window), but conversion still works: I can select candidates via number keys or Enter and the committed Chinese text appears in the terminal.

This does NOT happen with Microsoft Pinyin IME, and does NOT happen in Windows Terminal Preview on the same machine.

Diagnostics / traces:

• Captured ETW traces for both cases using the same WPR profile (Terminal.wprp!DefTerm.Verbose + GeneralProfile).
• Lost Buffers/Events = 0 in both traces (xperf -a tracestats).
• Sogou-related processes stay alive in both traces (no crash/exit), which suggests the input pipeline works and only the IME UI is not rendered/positioned.

Attachments:

• terminal-stable.etl (repro)
• terminal-preview.etl (working)
• OneDrive folder link: https://1drv.ms/f/c/0dfd59633394b347/IgDmE_Jc2UhiTaY7u-MANJgfAcIJovnPlAXafxPS8hqKktA

[clapat-bb]

I've encountered the same problem. Currently, Sogou Input Method doesn't show any candidate boxes when inputting Chinese characters, while other third-party input methods do.

[zscv]

I encountered the same problem after updating to version 1.23.13503.0. Microsoft Pinyin input works fine for Chinese characters, but Sogou does not display the candidate box when inputting Chinese characters.

[clapat-bb]

Haha, when I encountered this problem, I updated to the latest Sogou Input Method and suspected it was a font setting issue from this morning, but after verifying all of these, the problem persisted. I've temporarily switched to WeChat Input Method now; the green interface is quite eye-friendly.

[o87110]

iFlytek input method also has this problem.

[lhecker]

If I had to take a guess, I think this is another variant of a bug we fixed in #19046 and #19117. It was first released in v1.24 and also backported to v1.23.12102.0. It should be part of the version you're using.

The problem now is that our IME integration is identical between v1.23 and v1.24, so why does one work and not the other? The diff is completely empty:

git diff origin/release-1.23..origin/release-1.24 src/tsf/Implementation.cpp

This is very weird.

---

Side note:

The issue back then was actually a bug in QQPinjin itself, and other similar IME. They specify that they want a custom foreground color (TF_CT_COLORREF) and the default background color (TF_CT_NONE). Then, they set the custom foreground color to #000000 black. Since your terminal background is also black, you then couldn't see the IME text anymore. This sounds very similar to your issue.

(If you're wondering what an IME should do instead: They should just not specify any color at all! Simply set both crText|crBk.type to TF_CT_NONE. And if an IME does want a custom color, they should always specify colors for crText, crBk, and crLine at the same time, to ensure that there's no mixups with the application colors.)

[lhecker]

Ah now that I re-read your issue description, I realize I misunderstood your issue. I thought you meant the completion text, but you meant the candidate window of course. Perhaps I need a second coffee? 😅 I apologize for that. 😢

Unfortunately, for that I can't immediately think of a reason... Our IME integration (TSF) between v1.23 and v1.24 is identical and the window management contains barely 60 lines of changes (most of which is completely unrelated). There's lots of changes in the terminal UI / control code, but that should have no effect on an IME, unless it integrated itself with our UI code. (TSF gives the window coordinates directly to the IME so there should be no need for that.)

We're planning to release v1.24 as the next stable version very soon. So, it may not be worth it to investigate this further. 🙈

[MonchiLin]

Based on @lhecker’s reply, I installed version 1.24 using the following command, and Sogou IME now works correctly:

winget install --id Microsoft.WindowsTerminal.Preview -e

[elvismile]

I encountered the same problem after updating to version 1.23.13503.0. Microsoft Pinyin input works fine for Chinese characters, but Sogou does not display the candidate box when inputting Chinese characters.

[Fitmtfk]

I have some more information about this bug.My regedit has the same problem.I have two device runing Win11 23H2 but different subversion(22631.6199 and 22631.4112)
22631.6199:Windows Terminal(1.23.13503.0),regedit(10.0.22621.5262) all broken
22631.4112:Windows Terminal(1.21.10351.0),regedit(10.0.22621.4111) all fine
and i try to copy regedit(10.0.22621.4111) with mui to 22631.6199 it works well.
Perhaps there is a causal relationship between these two problems

[showyourlucky]

I resolved this issue using version 1.24.2812
download link: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases/download/v1.24.2812.0/Microsoft.WindowsTerminalPreview_1.24.2812.0_x64.zip