Progress Bar will not work, even when all the program does is show a Progress Bar - vb.net

Question

I have a form which, at present, is doing nothing but opening. The form has 2x controls - a 'Close' button and a Progress Bar. However, when I open the form, I get nothing. The Progress Bar just sits there doing nothing.
I've tried both Marquee (which I understand may not work in Windows 8) and Continuous, but I can't get anywhere with either.
This is how I'm showing the form when the program starts -
Sub main()
Dim ProgressForm As New formProgress
ProgressForm.ShowDialog()
End Sub
And below are the properties for the Progress Bar. Am I missing something that would get this bar working? Thanks.
Additional Information
For my full program, I did originally try using the Block style for the Progress Bar, but I kept getting the following error when trying to update the Progress Bar from a BackgroundWorker. This is why I am trying to get a simple Marquee/Continuous bar working instead.
Additional information: Cross-thread operation not valid: Control 'proWorking' accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on.

Answer 1

if you use marquee style you have to set marqueeanimationspeed to some value
//
// progressBar1
//
this.progressBar1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(91, 118);
this.progressBar1.MarqueeAnimationSpeed = 50;
this.progressBar1.Name = "progressBar1";
this.progressBar1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(100, 23);
this.progressBar1.Style = System.Windows.Forms.ProgressBarStyle.Marquee;
this.progressBar1.TabIndex = 0;
and use continuous style with marqueeanimationsspeed 0 to stop it

Answer 2

For the Progressbar to do something (apart from the Marquee Style) you need to set the Value property. If you have .Minimum=0 and .Maximum=100 then a .Value of 50 means that the Progressbar is half full. If you should use Continuous or Blocks Style depends on the Visual Styles settings and doesn't make a real difference here on Win 7 (maybe it does for example under Win XP).
The Marquee style means that you don't know how far your task has proceeded. The Progressbar then shows a continously moving piece (is only visible at runtime!!). I just tested it in Win 7 and it works.

Answer 3

Here's a little boilerplate I use with a BackgroundWorker and a ProgressBar and Label.
Public Class BackgroundWorkerUI
Private args As New ProgressArgs
Private Sub bw_DoWork(sender As System.Object, e As System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs) Handles bw.DoWork
'set ProgressBar style to Marquee
args.Style = ProgressBarStyle.Marquee
bw.ReportProgress(0) 'triggers the progress changed event to update UI on correct thread
'some long operation
Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000)
'Set ProgressBar style to Continuous
args.Style = ProgressBarStyle.Continuous
For i As Integer = 0 To 100
If bw.CancellationPending Then
e.Cancel = True
Exit For
End If
args.Current = i
args.Max = 100
args.Status = String.Format("({0} of {1}) Updating...", args.Current, args.Max)
bw.ReportProgress(0)
'some operation
Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
Next
End Sub
Private Sub bw_ProgressChanged(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventArgs) Handles bw.ProgressChanged
lblStatus.Text = args.Status
If args.Style = ProgressBarStyle.Marquee Then
bar.Style = args.Style
bar.MarqueeAnimationSpeed = 15
Else
bar.Style = ProgressBarStyle.Continuous
bar.Minimum = args.Min
bar.Maximum = args.Max
bar.Value = args.Current
End If
End Sub
Private Sub bw_RunWorkerCompleted(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs) Handles bw.RunWorkerCompleted
If e.Error IsNot Nothing Then
MessageBox.Show(e.Error.Message, "Background Worker Exception", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
Else
If e.Cancelled Then
lblStatus.Text = "Operation canceled"
Else
lblStatus.Text = "Done"
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Sub BackgroundWorkerUI_FormClosing(sender As Object, e As FormClosingEventArgs) Handles Me.FormClosing
If bw.IsBusy Then
Dim r = MessageBox.Show("A background process is still running. Are you sure you want to quit?", "Confirm", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Question)
If r = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Yes Then
bw.CancelAsync()
End If
e.Cancel = True
End If
End Sub
Private Class ProgressArgs
Inherits EventArgs
Public Property Status As String
Public Property Current As Integer
Public Property Min As Integer
Public Property Max As Integer
Public Property Style As ProgressBarStyle
Public Sub New()
Status = ""
Current = 0
Min = 0
Max = 0
Style = ProgressBarStyle.Continuous
End Sub
End Class
End Class