Hide WPF Window Until Fully Loaded

Question

For my WPF application, I am storing several user settings like window position, window state, and whether or not to display a welcome dialog. The problem is that while everything is loading up, I see a lot of flashing and flickering as the windows are loaded in, and then more flickering when the window is maximized after reading in the settings.

I am already using the built-in WPF PNG splash screen functionality, but is there a way to completely hide the rendering of all windows until everything is fully loaded in?

Answer 1

Edit the Application.xaml, remove the StartUpUri, instead set the StartUp event handler. In Application.xaml.cs, edit the startup event handler to display the splashscreen, load your resources, create everything, then create the main window and show it.

<Application
    ...
    StartUp="OnStartUp"
    />

And:

private void OnStartUp(Object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
{
    var settings = LoadSettingsFrom... // Call your implementation of load user settings

    // Example only, in real app do this if's section on a different thread
    if (settings.doShowSplashScreen)
    {
        var splashScreen = new SplashScreen();
        splashScreen.Show();
    }

    // Load and create stuff (resources, databases, main classes, ...)

    var mainWindow = new mainWindow();
    mainWindow.ApplySettings(settings); // Call your implementation of apply settings

    if (doShowSplashScreen)
    {
        // send close signal to splash screen's thread
    }

    mainWindow.Show(); // Show the main window
}