How do I display wait cursor during a WPF application's startup?

Question

Here are the basic events I want to happen when my WPF application starts. This is very similar to how Word starts on my machine.

1. Display busy cursor.
2. Perform basic initialization. This takes a couple of seconds and needs to be done before splash screen is displayed.
3. Display splash screen. This splash screen displays progress into more in-depth initialization and can take awhile (caches information from database).
4. Display default cursor. Since splash screen is displaying progress now, there's no need to display a busy cursor.
5. Once splash screen progress is complete, display main window.
6. Close splash screen.

Everything works fine except for the displaying of the busy cursor prior to the splash screen being displayed. When I execute the application through a shortcut, the wait cursor flashes, but soon goes back to the default. I've tried different ways to set the Cursor but none work, but I think the problem is that I'm not in a control/window--I'm doing it from within App.xaml.cs. And, the properties I'm setting seem to be Windows Forms properties. Here is an excerpt from my code in App.xaml.cs.

protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e) {   base.OnStartup(e);    System.Windows.Forms.Application.UseWaitCursor = true;   //System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.WaitCursor;   //System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();    Initialize();    SplashWindow splash = new SplashWindow();   splash.Show();    System.Windows.Forms.Cursor.Current = System.Windows.Forms.Cursors.Default;    // Right now I'm showing main window right after splash screen but I will eventually wait until splash screen closes.   MainWindow main = new MainWindow();   main.Show(); } 

Answer 1

This should work

Mouse.OverrideCursor = System.Windows.Input.Cursors.Wait; 

Use System.Windows.Input not System.Windows.Forms.

Answer 2

If you have a task that takes a significant amount of time, and it is running on a non-GUI thread, (which is a good idea) you can use this code to change the application cursor:

Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => {     Mouse.OverrideCursor = Cursors.Wait; }); 

When the busy process completes, use this:

Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => {     Mouse.OverrideCursor = null; });