C# Preventing clicks on a form without using Enabled=false

Question

I have a form that requires a long operation (expansion of a treeview node searches the network for additional items to create more tree nodes) - so I plan on using a BackgroundWorker for this task. During the long operation I want the cursor to be the wait cursor and I want the entire form to be unclickable except for the Cancel button. I know I could use Enabled=false but this turns the treeview grey which looks pretty lame imo.

I could just NOT use a BW but that means I have to use DoEvents to get the cursor to change and that possibly "Not Responding" would show up, which I hate.

I thought of handling all the mouse click events and keyboard events so that they are cancelled if the BW is busy... so that is my current plan. I just wondered if I am missing something, if there is another way.

Thanks.

Answer 1

There is no easy way to do that. It is better to fix your treeview and use Enabled property. You can also show your progressbar in Modal dialog - that will block UI