(VB.NET) Quick way for a Simple Splashscreen for WinForms [duplicate] - vb.net

Question

This question already has answers here:
How to create a Splash screen for VB.net program
(3 answers)
Closed 6 days ago.
My program took ~5-10 seconds to load and sometimes people using it would end up trying to open it again, which caused problems. I found a quick and easy way to make a "splashscreen" (in a sense) that pops up for a set amount of time immediately on execution. I found that the first order of events in a WinForm EXE loading was Handle Created. The answer is not a true splashscreen, but for a couple lines of code that can be easily added to a project, I think some people will like it.

Answer 1

The below code will show a MessageBox immediately on running the EXE and closes after 10 seconds.
Imports System.Threading
Private Sub Control1_HandleCreated(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Me.HandleCreated
Dim SplashScreen As New Thread(
Sub()
CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Popup("Program Initializing, Please Wait...",10, "Setup Tool")
End Sub)
SplashScreen.Start()
End Sub
I use Threading so that the MessageBox will not freeze the code and the program will open with or without the OK button being pressed. Doing a regular MessageBox.Show() will prevent any more code from running until the user clicks OK I have found.

Answer 2

The best way I have found to implement a splash screen which keeps the user informed via messages and/or a progress bar or animated wheel is the following.
Have a startup form eg Form1, and have it carry out all the tedious startup procedures which might cause any animated or progress bar graphic to get stalled in the event queue. Add a "BackgroundWorker" object to Form1 from the Toolbox and in my case I just named it BackgroundWorker1.
Before starting these routines, usually in the Form1_Load event, make a call to the BackgroundWorker.
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
CallBackgroundWork()
StartRoutines() 'this is the heavy lifting routines to get the app working. Set the LoadingStatusflag (declared as a Global Variable"
to various values to tell the splashscreen to display different messages
Loadingstatus = 10 'triggers splashform to exit
CancelBackgroundWork()
End Sub
These are the other subs to support this
Sub CallBackgroundWork()
BackgroundWorker1.WorkerSupportsCancellation = True
BackgroundWorker1.WorkerReportsProgress = True
' call this method to start your asynchronous Task.
BackgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync()
End Sub
Sub CancelBackgroundWork()
' to cancel the task, just call the BackgroundWorker1.CancelAsync method.
BackgroundWorker1.CancelAsync()
End Sub
Sub BackgroundWorker1_DoWork(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs) Handles BackgroundWorker1.DoWork
'' The asynchronous task we want to perform goes here
FormSplash.Show()
End Sub
My splashscreen has some label controls and pictureboxes and the FormSplash_Load event runs a stopwatch loop of 40ms and loads a series of images (24 in total) of a spinning wheel. This keeps running while the splashscreen is active. By setting the global variable Loadingstatus to various values within different part of the loading sequence in Form1 it can trigger the loop routine to display different messages example shown. An easy way to communicate between threads as you can't directly access objects between threads The wheel keeps spinning no matter how intensive the load routine in Form1 as it is running in another thread. I used a stopwatch loop as starting a timer doesn't work for me - maybe an event queue issue in splash form.
Private Sub FormSplash_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Me.Show()
Me.Opacity = 1 'show this form
'now start a loop that gets ended by other thread through variable Loadingstatus flag
Dim ggtimer As New Stopwatch, lastvalue As Integer, FProgPosition as integer
ggtimer.Start()
lastvalue = ggtimer.ElapsedMilliseconds
nextimage:
FProgPosition += 1
If FProgPosition = 24 Then FProgPosition = 1 'has 24 frames in the animated image
Do 'loop for 40 ms
If ggtimer.ElapsedMilliseconds - lastvalue > 40 Then
lastvalue = ggtimer.ElapsedMilliseconds
Exit Do
End If
Loop
PictureBoxProgress1.Image = FProgIMG(FProgPosition)
PictureBoxProgress1.Refresh()
If Loadingstatus = 10 Then GoTo endsplash
If Loadingstatus = 1 Then
If CoreTempRunning = False Then
Me.LabelCoreTemp.Text = "CoreTemp is NOT Running"
Me.LabelCoreTemp.ForeColor = Color.White
'insert cross picturebox
PictureBoxCoreTemp.Image = My.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject("Cross24x24")
loaderrorflag2 = True
Else
Me.LabelCoreTemp.Text = "CoreTemp is Running"
Me.LabelCoreTemp.ForeColor = Color.White
'insert tick picturebox
PictureBoxCoreTemp.Image = My.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject("Tick24x24")
loaderrorflag2 = False
End If
Me.PictureBoxCoreTemp.Visible = True
Me.PictureBoxCoreTemp.Refresh()
Me.LabelCoreTemp.Left = Me.Width * 2 / 3 - Me.LabelCoreTemp.Width
Me.LabelCoreTemp.Refresh()
GoTo nextimage
endsplash:
ggtimer.Stop()
Me.Opacity = 0.01
Me.Hide()
End Sub