How do I suspend painting for a control and its children?

Question

At my previous job, we struggled with getting our rich UI app to paint instantly and smoothly. We were using standard .Net controls, custom controls and devexpress controls.

After a lot of googling and reflector usage, I came across the WM_SETREDRAW win32 message. This really stops controls drawing whilst you update them and can be applied, IIRC to the parent/containing panel.

This is a very very simple class demonstrating how to use this message:

class DrawingControl
{
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 wMsg, bool wParam, Int32 lParam);

    private const int WM_SETREDRAW = 11; 
    
    public static void SuspendDrawing( Control parent )
    {
        SendMessage(parent.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, false, 0);
    }

    public static void ResumeDrawing( Control parent )
    {
        SendMessage(parent.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, true, 0);
        parent.Refresh();
    }
}

There are fuller discussions on this - google for C# and WM_SETREDRAW, e.g.

C# Jitter

Suspending Layouts

And to whom it may concern, this is a similar example in VB:

Public Module Extensions
    <DllImport("user32.dll")>
    Private Function SendMessage(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal Msg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Boolean, ByVal lParam As IntPtr) As Integer
    End Function

    Private Const WM_SETREDRAW As Integer = 11

    ' Extension methods for Control
    <Extension()>
    Public Sub ResumeDrawing(ByVal Target As Control, ByVal Redraw As Boolean)
        SendMessage(Target.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, True, IntPtr.Zero)
        If Redraw Then
            Target.Refresh()
        End If
    End Sub

    <Extension()>
    Public Sub SuspendDrawing(ByVal Target As Control)
        SendMessage(Target.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, False, IntPtr.Zero)
    End Sub

    <Extension()>
    Public Sub ResumeDrawing(ByVal Target As Control)
        ResumeDrawing(Target, True)
    End Sub
End Module

The following is the same solution of ng5000 but doesn't use P/Invoke.

public static class SuspendUpdate
{
    private const int WM_SETREDRAW = 0x000B;

    public static void Suspend(Control control)
    {
        Message msgSuspendUpdate = Message.Create(control.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, IntPtr.Zero,
            IntPtr.Zero);

        NativeWindow window = NativeWindow.FromHandle(control.Handle);
        window.DefWndProc(ref msgSuspendUpdate);
    }

    public static void Resume(Control control)
    {
        // Create a C "true" boolean as an IntPtr
        IntPtr wparam = new IntPtr(1);
        Message msgResumeUpdate = Message.Create(control.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, wparam,
            IntPtr.Zero);

        NativeWindow window = NativeWindow.FromHandle(control.Handle);
        window.DefWndProc(ref msgResumeUpdate);

        control.Invalidate();
    }
}

I usually use a little modified version of ngLink's answer.

public class MyControl : Control
{
    private int suspendCounter = 0;

    private void SuspendDrawing()
    {
        if(suspendCounter == 0) 
            SendMessage(this.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, false, 0);
        suspendCounter++;
    }

    private void ResumeDrawing()
    {
        suspendCounter--; 
        if(suspendCounter == 0) 
        {
            SendMessage(this.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, true, 0);
            this.Refresh();
        }
    }
}

This allows suspend/resume calls to be nested. You must make sure to match each SuspendDrawing with a ResumeDrawing. Hence, it wouldn't probably be a good idea to make them public.

To help with not forgetting to reenable drawing:

public static void SuspendDrawing(Control control, Action action)
{
    SendMessage(control.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, false, 0);
    action();
    SendMessage(control.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, true, 0);
    control.Refresh();
}

usage:

SuspendDrawing(myControl, () =>
{
    somemethod();
});

Based on ng5000's answer, I like using this extension:

        #region Suspend
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        private static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 wMsg, bool wParam, Int32 lParam);
        private const int WM_SETREDRAW = 11;
        public static IDisposable BeginSuspendlock(this Control ctrl)
        {
            return new suspender(ctrl);
        }
        private class suspender : IDisposable
        {
            private Control _ctrl;
            public suspender(Control ctrl)
            {
                this._ctrl = ctrl;
                SendMessage(this._ctrl.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, false, 0);
            }
            public void Dispose()
            {
                SendMessage(this._ctrl.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, true, 0);
                this._ctrl.Refresh();
            }
        }
        #endregion

Use:

using (this.BeginSuspendlock())
{
    //update GUI
}

A nice solution without using interop:

As always, simply enable DoubleBuffered=true on your CustomControl. Then, if you have any containers like FlowLayoutPanel or TableLayoutPanel, derive a class from each of these types and in the constructors, enable double buffering. Now, simply use your derived Containers instead of the Windows.Forms Containers.

class TableLayoutPanel : System.Windows.Forms.TableLayoutPanel
{
    public TableLayoutPanel()
    {
        DoubleBuffered = true;
    }
}

class FlowLayoutPanel : System.Windows.Forms.FlowLayoutPanel
{
    public FlowLayoutPanel()
    {
        DoubleBuffered = true;
    }
}

Here is a combination of ceztko's and ng5000's to bring a VB extensions version that doesn't use pinvoke

Imports System.Runtime.CompilerServices

Module ControlExtensions

Dim WM_SETREDRAW As Integer = 11

''' <summary>
''' A stronger "SuspendLayout" completely holds the controls painting until ResumePaint is called
''' </summary>
''' <param name="ctrl"></param>
''' <remarks></remarks>
<Extension()>
Public Sub SuspendPaint(ByVal ctrl As Windows.Forms.Control)

    Dim msgSuspendUpdate As Windows.Forms.Message = Windows.Forms.Message.Create(ctrl.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, System.IntPtr.Zero, System.IntPtr.Zero)

    Dim window As Windows.Forms.NativeWindow = Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.FromHandle(ctrl.Handle)

    window.DefWndProc(msgSuspendUpdate)

End Sub

''' <summary>
''' Resume from SuspendPaint method
''' </summary>
''' <param name="ctrl"></param>
''' <remarks></remarks>
<Extension()>
Public Sub ResumePaint(ByVal ctrl As Windows.Forms.Control)

    Dim wparam As New System.IntPtr(1)
    Dim msgResumeUpdate As Windows.Forms.Message = Windows.Forms.Message.Create(ctrl.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, wparam, System.IntPtr.Zero)

    Dim window As Windows.Forms.NativeWindow = Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.FromHandle(ctrl.Handle)

    window.DefWndProc(msgResumeUpdate)

    ctrl.Invalidate()

End Sub

End Module