How can I make the cursor turn to the wait cursor?

c# .net winforms cursor
Malfist picture Malfist · Oct 14, 2009 · Viewed 428.3k times · Source

I have a C# application that has users login to it, and because the hashing algorithm is expensive, it takes a little while to do. How can I display the Wait/Busy Cursor (usually the hourglass) to the user to let them know the program is doing something?

The project is in C#.

Answer

Donut picture Donut · Oct 14, 2009

You can use Cursor.Current.

// Set cursor as hourglass
Cursor.Current = Cursors.WaitCursor;

// Execute your time-intensive hashing code here...

// Set cursor as default arrow
Cursor.Current = Cursors.Default;

However, if the hashing operation is really lengthy (MSDN defines this as more than 2-7 seconds), you should probably use a visual feedback indicator other than the cursor to notify the user of the progress. For a more in-depth set of guidelines, see this article.

Edit:
As @Am pointed out, you may need to call Application.DoEvents(); after Cursor.Current = Cursors.WaitCursor; to ensure that the hourglass is actually displayed.

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