How to disable all controls on the form except for a button?

Question

My form has hundreds of controls: menus, panels, splitters, labels, text boxes, you name it.

Is there a way to disable every control except for a single button?

The reason why the button is significant is because I can't use a method that disables the window or something because one control still needs to be usable.

Answer 1

You can do a recursive call to disable all of the controls involved. Then you have to enable your button and any parent containers.

 private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
        DisableControls(this);
        EnableControls(Button1);
    }

    private void DisableControls(Control con) {
        foreach (Control c in con.Controls) {
            DisableControls(c);
        }
        con.Enabled = false;
    }

    private void EnableControls(Control con) {
        if (con != null) {
            con.Enabled = true;
            EnableControls(con.Parent);
        }
    }

Answer 2

Based on @pinkfloydx33's answer and the edit I made on it, I created an extension method that makes it even easier, just create a public static class like this:

public static class GuiExtensionMethods
{
        public static void Enable(this Control con, bool enable)
        {
            if (con != null)
            {
                foreach (Control c in con.Controls)
                {
                    c.Enable(enable);
                }

                try
                {
                    con.Invoke((MethodInvoker)(() => con.Enabled = enable));
                }
                catch
                {
                }
            }
        }
}

Now, to enable or disable a control, form, menus, subcontrols, etc. Just do:

this.Enable(true); //Will enable all the controls and sub controls for this form
this.Enable(false);//Will disable all the controls and sub controls for this form

Button1.Enable(true); //Will enable only the Button1

So, what I would do, similar as @pinkfloydx33's answer:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) 
{
        this.Enable(false);
        Button1.Enable(true);
}

I like Extension methods because they are static and you can use it everywhere without creating instances (manually), and it's much clearer at least for me.

Answer 3

For a better, more elegant solution, which would be easy to maintain - you probably need to reconsider your design, such as put your button aside from other controls. Then assuming other controls are in a panel or a groupbox, just do Panel.Enabled = False.

If you really want to keep your current design, you can Linearise ControlCollection tree into array of Control to avoid recursion and then do the following:

Array.ForEach(Me.Controls.GetAllControlsOfType(Of Control), Sub(x As Control) x.Enabled = False)
yourButton.Enabled = True