Windows Forms Splash Screen - Show a Form While Loading Main Form

Windows Forms Splash Screen - Show a form while loading main form

There are different ways of creating splash screens:

• You can rely on the splash screen feature of WindowsFormsApplicationBase

• You can show implement the feature yourself by showing a form on a different UI thread and hiding it after the main from loaded successfully.

In this post I'll show an example of both solutions.

Note: Those who are looking for showing a loading window or a loading
gif animation during loading of data, can take a look at this post: Show Loading animation during loading data in other thread

Option 1 - Use WindowsFormsApplicationBase Splash Screen feature

1. Add a reference of Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll to your project.
2. Create a MyApplication class by deriving from WindowsFormsApplicationBase
3. override OnCreateMainForm and assign the from that you want to be the startup form to MainForm property.

4. Override OnCreateSplashScreen and assign the form that you want to show as splash screen to SplashScreen property.

5. In your Main method, create an instance of MyApplication and call its Run method.

Example

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices;

static class Program
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The main entry point for the application.
    /// </summary>
    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(true);
        var app = new MyApplication();
        app.Run(Environment.GetCommandLineArgs());
    }
}
public class MyApplication : WindowsFormsApplicationBase
{
    protected override void OnCreateMainForm()
    {
        MainForm = new YourMainForm();
    }
    protected override void OnCreateSplashScreen()
    {
        SplashScreen = new YourSplashForm();
    }
}

Option 2 - Implement the feature using a different UI thread

You can implement the feature yourself by showing the splash screen in a different UI thread. To do so, you can subscribe to Load event of the main form in Program class, and show and close your splash screen there.

Example

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;

static class Program
{
    static Form SplashScreen;
    static Form MainForm;
    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
        //Show Splash Form
        SplashScreen = new Form();
        var splashThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(
            () => Application.Run(SplashScreen)));
        splashThread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
        splashThread.Start();

        //Create and Show Main Form
        MainForm = new Form8();
        MainForm.Load += MainForm_LoadCompleted;
        Application.Run(MainForm);
    }
    private static void MainForm_LoadCompleted(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (SplashScreen != null && !SplashScreen.Disposing && !SplashScreen.IsDisposed)
            SplashScreen.Invoke(new Action(() => SplashScreen.Close()));
        MainForm.TopMost = true;
        MainForm.Activate();
        MainForm.TopMost = false;
    }
}

Note: To show a smooth edge custom shaped splash screen take a look at
this post: Windows Forms Transparent Background
Image.

Splash screen and main window

If you want to show splash screen while loading other controls on the Main form, you can use splash screen waiting . You can refer this link

In my application I use Devexpress control SplashScreen Manager.

      private void FormMain_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            sphManager.ShowWaitForm(); 
            //Place your code which you need to execute while Splash screen is active           
            GenerateNavigationView();          
            this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
            //Once you finish all your requirement, close the Splash screen
            sphManager.CloseWaitForm();
        }

How to build splash screen in windows forms application?

First, create your splash screen as a borderless, immovable form with your image on it, set to initially display at the center of the screen, colored the way you want. All of this can be set from within the designer; specifically, you want to:

• Set the form's ControlBox, MaximizeBox, MinimizeBox and ShowIcon properties to "False"
• Set the StartPosition property to "CenterScreen"
• Set the FormBorderStyle property to "None"
• Set the form's MinimumSize and MaximumSize to be the same as its initial Size.

Then, you need to decide where to show it and where to dismiss it. These two tasks need to occur on opposite sides of the main startup logic of your program. This could be in your application's main() routine, or possibly in your main application form's Load handler; wherever you're creating large expensive objects, reading settings from the hard drive, and generally taking a long time to do stuff behind the scenes before the main application screen displays.

Then, all you have to do is create an instance of your form, Show() it, and keep a reference to it while you do your startup initialization. Once your main form has loaded, Close() it.

If your splash screen will have an animated image on it, the window will need to be "double-buffered" as well, and you will need to be absolutely sure that all initialization logic happens outside the GUI thread (meaning you cannot have your main loading logic in the mainform's Load handler; you'll have to create a BackgroundWorker or some other threaded routine.

Splash screen used before opening a form not loading controls

Dim sp As New SplashScreen2  
sp.Show()  

sp.Update() 

Dim a = New AsignarFormacionesUsuario(p)

Main window appears behind other windows after splash screen

Form1.Activate(); 

This should make it the focus and bring to front.

MSDN link: system windows forms form activate

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