System.Windows.Forms Timer is not functioning when a thread is running on main

Question

I would like to ask anyone of you if you have tried this kind of scenario. I developed a windows application in c#. In main Program (Program.cs) I added a thread mutex just to multitask many operations executed under it.

//under Program.cs
public static FormOneInstance frmOneInstance;
    static void Main()
    {
         t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(CreateInputOutput));
         t.Start();
    }
    public static void CreateInputOutput()
    {
                try
                {
                    mutex.WaitOne(); 
                    ExecuteManyOperationsHere(); 
                }
                finally
                {
                    mutex.ReleaseMutex();
                    Thread.CurrentThread.Abort(); //Has ThreadAbortException here
                    t = null;
                }
      }



  public static void ExecuteManyOperationsHere()
    {
      frmOneInstance  =new FormOneInstance (); //this has lot of execution on formLoad that includes ShowSummary()
    }

And on my other Form FormOneInstance class, I used System.Windows.Forms Timer

 private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

            ShowSummary();
        }

Now, I want to separate the thread in main and UI. Thanks!

You need message loop for this timer... Note that it is really unclear why you pick that timer for console app... and what code with `mutex.WaitOne` should represent. It may be good idea to read [MCVE] guidance to improve the question. — Alexei Levenkov, Apr 04 '16 at 04:04
Mutexes are a synchronization mechanism for two or more threads to access a shared resource at the same time. I don't see the mutex being used by more than one thread and I don't see what resource is being synchronized. If timer1_Tick is being used to show progress/results from the other thread then it is not likely to be that easy. Are you familiar with Background Workers? — Sam Hobbs, Apr 04 '16 at 06:18
Yes, I used that before but my application still hangs up. So, when I tried using mutex, it runs smoothly — Juran, Apr 04 '16 at 06:54

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

The Windows Forms Timer runs on the ui thread and there is only one see this SO post.

See for example the Threading.Timer on MSDN

You could use a timer which doesn't this stuff. but be sure to invoke back, to the ui thread when the timer code wants to change values that are shown in the ui

myTimer= new Timer( handleTimer, null, timerIntervall, Timeout.Infinite );

Then you can create a method which invokes your CreateInputOutput method on the ui thread in order to show a new ui element

public void handleTimer(object State)
{
// PLace here the blocking code which shoudl not block the ui
this.invoke(...)  // here you can call the method which should be run un the ui thread. Like creating new forms
}

}

for more details see also this post about threading timer

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 04 '16 at 18:09

Since it is not clear what your requirements are, I will assume that what you really want to use is a BackgroundWorker. The following also have samples.

BackgroundWorker.ReportProgress Method (Int32, Object) (System.ComponentModel)

Walkthrough: Multithreading with the BackgroundWorker Component (C# and Visual Basic)

How to: Run an Operation in the Background

System.Windows.Forms Timer is not functioning when a thread is running on main

2 Answers2