How do I fire an event in VB.NET code? - vb.net

Question

I have a form that has a start button (to allow users to run the processes over and over if they wish), and I want to send a btnStart.Click event when the form loads, so that the processes start automatically.
I have the following function for the btnStart.Click event, but how do I actually tell Visual Basic 'Pretend someone has clicked the button and fire this event'?
I've tried going very simple, which essentially works. However, Visual Studio gives me a warning Variable 'sender' is used before it has been assigned a value, so I'm guessing this is not really the way to do it:
Dim sender As Object
btnStart_Click(sender, New EventArgs())
I have also tried using RaiseEvent btnStart.Click, but that gives the following error:
'btnStart' is not an event of 'MyProject.MyFormClass
Code
Imports System.ComponentModel
Partial Public Class frmProgress
Private bw As BackgroundWorker = New BackgroundWorker
Public Sub New()
InitializeComponent()
' Set up the BackgroundWorker
bw.WorkerReportsProgress = True
bw.WorkerSupportsCancellation = True
AddHandler bw.DoWork, AddressOf bw_DoWork
AddHandler bw.ProgressChanged, AddressOf bw_ProgressChanged
AddHandler bw.RunWorkerCompleted, AddressOf bw_RunWorkerCompleted
' Fire the 'btnStart.click' event when the form loads
Dim sender As Object
btnStart_Click(sender, New EventArgs())
End Sub
Private Sub btnStart_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnStart.Click
If Not bw.IsBusy = True Then
' Enable the 'More >>' button on the form, as there will now be details for users to view
Me.btnMore.Enabled = True
' Update the form control settings so that they correctly formatted when the processing starts
set_form_on_start()
bw.RunWorkerAsync()
End If
End Sub
' Other functions exist here
End Class

Answer 1

You should send a button as sender into the event handler:
btnStart_Click(btnStart, New EventArgs())

Answer 2

Steps in involved in raising an event is as follows,
Public Event ForceManualStep As EventHandler
RaiseEvent ForceManualStep(Me, EventArgs.Empty)
AddHandler ForceManualStep, AddressOf ManualStepCompletion
Private Sub ManualStepCompletion(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
End Sub
So in your case, it should be as below,
btnStart_Click(btnStart, EventArgs.Empty)

Answer 3

Just Call
btnStart.PerformClick()

Answer 4

You are trying to implement a bad idea. Actually, you have to make a subroutine to accomplish these kind of tasks.
Private Sub btnStart_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles btnStart.Click
call SeparateSubroutine()
End Sub
private sub SeparateSubroutine()
'Your code here.
End Sub
And then whereever you want to call the btnStart's click event, just call that SeparateSubroutine. This should be a correct way in your case.

Answer 5

You can subclass the button and make its OnClick Method public as I described here.