Winform updates on long running tasks

Question

Do you have a good solution for keeping a 'Please wait' winform 'painted' while an application is performing a long running task ?

I've tried using form.refresh() on each step, but there are a few long running queries that take place, which means that this isn't frequent enough.

Basically this SO Question but, on C# in Excel through VSTO (rather than Python).

Answer 1

Here's a good example with code in C#.

It is for splash screens specifically, however it is almost identical process (perhaps minus some of the flashy Opacity) to create a Please wait window.

The key information is that you will need a separate thread. This can complicate things however the article gives a good coverage/example of how to do it correctly.