diff --git a/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.cpp b/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.cpp
index dc1b93f81..66760bdc5 100644
--- a/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.cpp
+++ b/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.cpp
@@ -162,9 +162,11 @@ DaemonApp::InitResult DaemonApp::init(IEventQueue *events, int argc, char **argv
     string arg(argv[i]);
 
     if (arg == "-h" || arg == "--help") {
+      showConsole();
       showHelp(argc, argv);
       return ShowHelp;
     } else if (arg == "-f" || arg == "--foreground") {
+      showConsole();
       m_foreground = true;
     }
 #if SYSAPI_WIN32
@@ -263,3 +265,16 @@ std::string DaemonApp::logFilename()
 
   return logFilename;
 }
+
+void DaemonApp::showConsole()
+{
+#if SYSAPI_WIN32
+  // The daemon bin is compiled using the Win32 subsystem which works best for Windows services,
+  // so when running as a foreground process we need to allocate a console (or we won't see output).
+  // It is important to do this inside the arg check loop so that we can attach console ahead
+  // of log output generated by handling other args.
+  AllocConsole();
+  freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stdout);
+  freopen("CONOUT$", "w", stderr);
+#endif
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.h b/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.h
index 7ace0af46..850087989 100644
--- a/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.h
+++ b/src/lib/deskflow/DaemonApp.h
@@ -69,6 +69,8 @@ private:
   void handleError(const char *message);
   void handleIpcMessage(const Event &e, void *);
 
+  static void showConsole();
+
 #if SYSAPI_WIN32
   std::unique_ptr<MSWindowsWatchdog> m_watchdog;
 #endif