Background not repainting

I have written an app in c# that autoarchives our system files to a sourcesafe database. Some of these actions can take a while and the main form becomes white with no controls drawn. After the operation has completed the controls get redrawn but not the forms background. I have tried an invalidate but this does nothing. Can anyone tell me why the form goes blank in the first place and how to repaint the background.

Thanks.

Calling Application.DoEvents is the simplest method.

Creating a thread for your methods that run a long time is the proper way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crackersixx

Creating a thread for your methods that run a long time is the proper way.

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Yep, the simplest way being using a BackgroundWorker. Very easy to use for simple threading. Just remember to wrap any UI changes in the following:

Code:

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controlToChange.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate()
{
  //controlToChange.Text = "whatever";
  // UI changes here
});

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And the BackgroundWorker stuff itself:

Code:

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BackgroundWorker bw = new BackgroundWorker();
bw.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(bw_DoWork);
bw.RunWorkerAsync();

void bw_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
  // do stuff
}

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Thank you all for the replies.