RAPID PUBLISHING ARTICLES PROVIDE INFORMATION DIRECTLY FROM WITHIN THE MICROSOFT SUPPORT ORGANIZATION. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS CREATED IN RESPONSE TO EMERGING OR UNIQUE TOPICS, OR IS INTENDED SUPPLEMENT OTHER KNOWLEDGE BASE INFORMATION.
A Windows Forms application's UI may freeze if system settings are changed or the workstation is locked and unlocked.
The application will not respond and the UI thread will hang in an Invoke call while handling the OnUserPreferenceChanged notification:
[In a sleep, wait, or join]
mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.WaitHandle.WaitOne(long timeout, bool exitContext) + 0x2e bytes
mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.WaitHandle.WaitOne(int millisecondsTimeout, bool exitContext) + 0x23 bytes
System.Windows.Forms.dll!System.Windows.Forms.Control.WaitForWaitHandle(System.Threading.WaitHandle waitHandle = {System.Threading.ManualResetEvent}) + 0xa1 bytes
System.Windows.Forms.dll!System.Windows.Forms.Control.MarshaledInvoke(System.Windows.Forms.Control caller, System.Delegate method, object[] args, bool synchronous) + 0x36d bytes
System.Windows.Forms.dll!System.Windows.Forms.Control.Invoke(System.Delegate method, object[] args) + 0x48 bytes
System.Windows.Forms.dll!System.Windows.Forms.WindowsFormsSynchronizationContext.Send(System.Threading.SendOrPostCallback d, object state) + 0x61 bytes
System.dll!Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents.SystemEventInvokeInfo.Invoke(bool checkFinalization = true, object[] args = {Dimensions:[0x00000002]}) + 0x68 bytes
System.dll!Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents.RaiseEvent(bool checkFinalization = true, object key = {object}, object[] args = {Dimensions:[0x00000002]}) + 0x106 bytes
System.dll!Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents.OnUserPreferenceChanging(int msg, System.IntPtr wParam, System.IntPtr lParam) + 0x6f bytes
System.dll!Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents.WindowProc(System.IntPtr hWnd = 0x001e10a4, int msg = 0x0000201a, System.IntPtr wParam = 0x00000000, System.IntPtr lParam = 0x066462f0) + 0x288 bytes
[Native to Managed Transition]
...
This occurs if a control is created on a thread which doesn't pump messages and the UI thread receives a WM_SETTINGCHANGE message.
All top level controls register for the SystemEvents.UserPreferenceChanged event so that they can be notified of system wide setting changes such as color, theme, desktop size, etc. The SystemEvents system listens for this message, and when it receives the messages it fires the UserPreferenceChanged notification for all of the objects which have registered to receive that message. SystemEvents checks if the registered object is on its own thread, and if not it Invokes to the object's thread so that the notification will fire in the correct context.
The problem occurs if the object's thread does not pump messages, since the Invoke method relies on window messages. Invoke posts a message with the delegate data and then waits until the message has been received and handled. If the target thread doesn't pump messages, then the posted message never gets handled, and Invoke waits forever.
Common causes are a splash screens created on a secondary UI thread or any controls created on worker threads.
Applications should never leave Control objects on threads without an active message pump. If Controls cannot be created on the main UI thread, they should be created on a dedicated secondary UI thread and Disposed as soon as they are no longer needed.
One way to identify which windows are created on which thread is with Spy++ in the Processes view (Spy.Processes menu). Select the hung process and expand its threads to see if there are any unexpected windows. This will find the native window if it still exists; however, the problem can occur even if the native window has been destroyed, so long as the managed Control has not yet been Disposed.
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