How can I make the progress bar update fast enough?

Question

I\'m using a progress bar to show the user how far along the process is. It has 17 steps, and it can take anywhere from ~5 seconds to two or three minutes depending on the weath

Answer 1

I use Mark Lansdown's excellent answer as an Extension method for the ProgressBar control.

public static void ValueFast(this ProgressBar progressBar, int value)
{
    progressBar.Value = value;

    if (value > 0)    // prevent ArgumentException error on value = 0
    {
        progressBar.Value = value - 1;
        progressBar.Value = value;
    }

}

Or you can also do it this way which only sets the ProgressBar value property twice instead of three times:

public static void ValueFast(this ProgressBar progressBar, int value)
{
    if (value < 100)    // prevent ArgumentException error on value = 100
    {
        progressBar.Value = value + 1;    // set the value +1
    }

    progressBar.Value = value;    // set the actual value

}

Simply call it on any ProgressBar control using the extension method:

this.progressBar.ValueFast(50);

If you really wanted to you could also check the current Windows Environment and only do the hack section of code for Windows Vista+ since Windows XP's ProgressBar does not have the slow progress animation.