Windows Forms - How Can I Make Them Draw/Render Properly?

[Joey Powell]

Hello all. For a long time now I have been struggling with a .net
Windows Forms problem. In several of my applications, I use the
"Process" class from System.Diagnostics to accomplish various task
from within my code (kind of like the old VB shell function). Using
this process class appears to be just one example of what causes my
Windows forms to look really crazy when running the application. In
fact this has become not only a cosmetic issue but also a usability
issue as of late. Users are confused because the application is not
updating or appears to be not responding.

More specifically, when I say that the forms look crazy what I mean
is, that quite frequently:

* The forms will draw white and not update for several minutes.

* My application will have two or three windows open in the Windows
taskbar when there should only be one.

It's as if there is a lot of processing waiting to occur but it can't
for some reason (maybe because the app is tied up working with the
shelled processes?) Even then, though, it doesn't update between the
processes! It doesn't update between the processes, even though (in
despiration) I have included numerous calls to the form's "Activate",
"Show", and "Refresh" functions.

I am tired of this causing problems. I would really like to know what
I can do to prevent it from happening in the future. Somebody once
told me it had something to do with threading, but I don't know about
that. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do?