Question

I need to be able start a timer when my custom control is loaded. However, I need to be able to do this in the abstract class that all controls of this type inherit from.

Answer 1

The control does have a Loaded event that you can attach to in your abstract base class in order to start the timer.

// in ctor of abstract control
_timer = new DispatcherTimer(...);
Loaded += (s,e) => _timer.Start();