How to force Task.Factory.StartNew to a background thread?

Question

I have seen numerous other questions similar to this but did not find my answer there.

My problem was that I was creating threads with the following flow:

private void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    service.GetCount(
        (count, ex) =>
        {
            if (ex != null)
                return;

            for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
            {
                service.Get(onItemReceived, i);
            }
        }
    );
}

public void GetCount(Action<int, Exception> callback)
{
    var callingThread = TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext();

    Func<int> action = () =>
    {
        return client.GetCount(); // Synchronous method, could take a long time
    };

    Action<Task<int>> completeAction = (task) =>
    {
        Exception ex = (task.Exception != null) ? task.Exception.InnerException : task.Exception;

        if (callback != null)
            callback(task.Result, ex);
    };

    Task.Factory.StartNew(action).ContinueWith(completeAction, callingThread);
}

public void Get(Action<object, Exception> callback, int index)
{
    var callingThread = TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext();

    Func<object> action = () =>
    {
        return client.Get(index); // Synchronous method, could take a long time
    };

    Action<Task<object>> completeAction = (task) =>
    {
        Exception ex = (task.Exception != null) ? task.Exception.InnerException : task.Exception;

        if (callback != null)
            callback(task.Result, ex);
    };

    Task.Factory.StartNew(action).ContinueWith(completeAction, callingThread);
}

In this way, each of my service's asynchronous methods would callback the thread they were originally called on (generally the UI thread). So I am simulating how the await/async keywords work (I cannot use .NET 4.5).

The problem with this pattern is that I get inexplicably locked to the UI thread after the first call to "ContinueWith". So in this case if I attempt to spawn 5 threads to each process a synchronous function Get, they will execute 1 by 1 instead of in parallel and they will block the UI thread while doing so, even if I try specifying TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning.

This never happens with my first call to Task.Factory.StartNew, it only happens to subsequent calls from within the first callback.

Answer 1

In order to force the launch of a new thread, you should specify TaskScheduler.Default in the call to Task.Factory.StartNew as follows:

Task.Factory.StartNew(action,
                      CancellationToken.None,
                      TaskCreationOptions.None,
                      TaskScheduler.Default).ContinueWith(completeAction);

In my testing you do not need to specify TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning in order to force a background thread, though it shouldn't hurt.