HttpClient GetAsync working in a VB.Net Console application but not in Windows Forms - vb.net

Question

Works as expected in the console application (I converted it from a C# YouTube tutorial for reasons I won't bore you with), but hangs with no exception thrown in the desktop app when calling GetAsync.
`Imports System
Imports System.Net.Http
Module Moduke1
Sub Main()
Dim strContent As Task(Of String) = GetRequest("http://www.google.com.pk")
Console.WriteLine(strContent.Result)
Console.ReadKey()
End Sub
Async Function GetRequest(url As String) As Task(Of String)
Using client As New HttpClient()
Using response As HttpResponseMessage = Await client.GetAsync(url)
Using content As HttpContent = response.Content
Dim myContent As String = Await content.ReadAsStringAsync()
Return myContent
End Using
End Using
End Using
End Function
End Module`
That works, but the following does not. Probably a rookie error, although I'm not really a rookie - never used System.Net.Http until now and I've been all round the houses with this one.
The following hangs at the call to GetAsync...
`Imports System
Imports System.Net.Http
Public Class HTTP_Test_One
Public Sub HTTP_Test_One_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim strContent As Task(Of String) = GetRequest("http://www.google.com.pk")
txtResults.Text = strContent.Result
End Sub
Async Function GetRequest(url As String) As Task(Of String)
Using client As New HttpClient()
Using response As HttpResponseMessage = Await client.GetAsync(url)
Using content As HttpContent = response.Content
Dim myContent As String = Await content.ReadAsStringAsync()
Return myContent
End Using
End Using
End Using
End Function
End Class`

Answer 1

I'm not 100% on this, and suspect I may get corrected by people more in the know than I, maybe even the why. Looks to me that awaiting the Result of your task is jamming up, why not in the Console app, my guess is because it doesn't have the overhead of UI thread, or being triggered by an event. Just by reworking your button event handler, I at least get the desired response.
Private Async Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim strContent As String = Await GetRequest("http://www.google.com.pk")
txtResults.Text = strContent
End Sub
Note I've changed the Event to Async, which means I can just await the response from GetRequest() rather than looking at the task result

Answer 2

Blocking on async code in the UI thread is likely to lead to a deadlock. This has been discussed in a number of async-related resources; my go-to is the series of posts by Stephen Cleary, and he discusses this specific issue in https://blog.stephencleary.com/2012/07/dont-block-on-async-code.html with some additional detail on why blocking can lead to a deadlock.
The right way to do this is to make your event handler Async and then Await the result within it, i.e.
Private Async Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim content = Await GetRequest("http://www.google.com.pk")
txtResults.Text = content
End Sub
Note that Async Sub is generally recommended against due to issues with processing errors, but event handlers are the exception---Async Sub is designed specifically for UI event handlers.