Cursor.Current vs. this.Cursor

Solution 1:

Windows sends the window that contains the mouse cursor the WM_SETCURSOR message, giving it an opportunity to change the cursor shape. A control like TextBox takes advantage of that, changing the cursor into a I-bar. The Control.Cursor property determines what shape will be used.

The Cursor.Current property changes the shape directly, without waiting for a WM_SETCURSOR response. In most cases, that shape is unlikely to survive for long. As soon as the user moves the mouse, WM_SETCURSOR changes it back to Control.Cursor.

The UseWaitCursor property was added in .NET 2.0 to make it easier to display an hourglass. Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well. It requires a WM_SETCURSOR message to change the shape and that won't happen when you set the property to true and then do something that takes a while. Try this code for example:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
  this.UseWaitCursor = true;
  System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000);
  this.UseWaitCursor = false;
}

The cursor never changes. To whack that into shape, you'll need to use Cursor.Current as well. Here is a little helper class to make it easy:

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class HourGlass : IDisposable {
  public HourGlass() {
    Enabled = true;
  }
  public void Dispose() {
    Enabled = false;
  }
  public static bool Enabled {
    get { return Application.UseWaitCursor; }
    set {
      if (value == Application.UseWaitCursor) return;
      Application.UseWaitCursor = value;
      Form f = Form.ActiveForm;
      if (f != null && f.Handle != IntPtr.Zero)   // Send WM_SETCURSOR
        SendMessage(f.Handle, 0x20, f.Handle, (IntPtr)1);
    }
  }
  [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
  private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, IntPtr lp);
}

And use it like this:

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
  using (new HourGlass()) {
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000);
  }
}

Solution 2:

I believe that Cursor.Current is the mouse cursor currently being used (regardless of where it is on the screen), while this.Cursor is the cursor it will be set to, when the mouse passes over your window.

Solution 3:

this.Cursor is the cursor that will be used when the mouse is over the window referred to by this. Cursor.Current is the current mouse cursor, which might be different from this.Cursor if the mouse is over a different window.

Solution 4:

Actually if you would like to use HourGlass from another thread that will give you back cross-threading exception because you are trying to access f.Handle from different thread than form was originally created. Use GetForegroundWindow() instead from user32.dll.

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();

and then

public static bool Enabled
{
    get
    {
        return Application.UseWaitCursor;
    }

    set
    {
        if (value == Application.UseWaitCursor)
        {
            return;
        }

        Application.UseWaitCursor = value;
        var handle = GetForegroundWindow();
        SendMessage(handle, 0x20, handle, (IntPtr)1);
    }
}