Blank window before all is loaded

Question

How do I code a blank window, like this, before the whole form is loaded? I've tried dragging a white picturebox over the window at Window_Load and Window_Shown, but that didn't work out. Any ideas?

Answer 1

I have made a custom window so when it shows up it would appear as a message box with custom appearance and when the loading done I close this window like that

CMessageBox cmb = new CMessageBox("Loading...");
cmb.Show(this);

//Do the heavy work here
//after the heavy work finish call cmb.close()

cmb.Close();

of course cmb is the custom window that you have to make your self

actually it is just a form that I have removed its borders and give it 'loading' text in the middle!

OK I will add the code for the custom form

Create a new form and add this code to it

public CMessageBox(string message)
{
    InitializeComponent();
    this.lblMessage.Text = message;
}

private void CMessageBox_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    this.lblMessage.Top = (this.Height - this.lblMessage.Height) / 2;
    this.lblMessage.Left = (this.Width - this.lblMessage.Width) / 2;
}

private void lblMessage_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    this.lblMessage.Top = (this.Height - this.lblMessage.Height) / 2;
    this.lblMessage.Left = (this.Width - this.lblMessage.Width) / 2;
    this.Refresh();
}

public string _Caption
{
    get { return this.lblMessage.Text; }
    set { this.lblMessage.Text = value; }
}

After that you call it as I showed you at the beginning

I have set the window so it would have a small width and height just to contain the message, if you would like to change this you can ignore those 2 events

private void CMessageBox_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    this.lblMessage.Top = (this.Height - this.lblMessage.Height) / 2;
    this.lblMessage.Left = (this.Width - this.lblMessage.Width) / 2;
}

private void lblMessage_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    this.lblMessage.Top = (this.Height - this.lblMessage.Height) / 2;
    this.lblMessage.Left = (this.Width - this.lblMessage.Width) / 2;
    this.Refresh();
}

You need to add label in the design and give it a name lblMessage also you need to set the BorderStyle to none