Question

I have the following code in C#:

Form f = new MyForm();
f.Visible = false;
f.Show();
f.Close();

Despite the f.Visible = false, I am seeing a flash of the form appearing and then disappearing. What do I need to do to make this form invisible?

I need to show the form (invisibly) during the splash of my app because doing this removes a cold start delay when showing this form.

Answer 1

If you want to show the form without actually seeing it, you can do this:

  public Form1()
  {
     InitializeComponent();
     this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None;
     this.ShowInTaskbar = false;
     this.Load += new EventHandler(Form1_Load);
  }

  void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
     this.Size = new Size(0, 0);
  }

If at a later point you want to show it, you can just change everything back. Here is an example after 10 seconds, it shows the form:

  Timer tmr = new Timer();
  public Form1()
  {
     tmr.Interval = 10000;
     tmr.Tick += new EventHandler(tmr_Tick);
     tmr.Start();

     InitializeComponent();
     this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None;
     this.ShowInTaskbar = false;
     this.Load += new EventHandler(Form1_Load);
  }

  void tmr_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
     this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.Sizable;
     this.ShowInTaskbar = true;
     this.Size = new Size(300, 300);
  }

  void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
     this.Size = new Size(0, 0);
  }