Multithreading in Windows Forms Controls

In many applications, you can make your user interface (UI) more responsive by performing time-consuming operations on another thread. A number of tools are available for multithreading your Windows Forms controls, including the System.Threading namespace, the Control.BeginInvoke method, and the BackgroundWorker component.

Note

The BackgroundWorker component replaces and adds functionality to the System.Threading namespace and the Control.BeginInvoke method; however, these are retained for both backward compatibility and future use, if you choose. For more information, see BackgroundWorker Component Overview.

In This Section

• How to: Make Thread-Safe Calls to Windows Forms Controls
  Shows how to make thread-safe calls to Windows Forms controls.

• How to: Use a Background Thread to Search for Files
  Shows how to use the System.Threading namespace and the BeginInvoke method to search for files asynchronously.

Reference

• BackgroundWorker
  Documents a component that encapsulates a worker thread for asynchronous operations.

• LoadAsync
  Documents how to load a sound asynchronously.

• LoadAsync
  Documents how to load an image asynchronously.

Related Sections

• How to: Run an Operation in the Background
  Shows how to perform a time-consuming operation with the BackgroundWorker component.

• BackgroundWorker Component Overview
  Provides topics that describe how to use the BackgroundWorker component for asynchronous operations.