VB.NET 2005 provides "native" functionality to display a splash screen on application startup. To add a splash screen to a project the follow the steps outlined below:
- Add a splash screen form.
- Make the application display the splash screen on start up.
- Customise the splash screen display time.
- Customise the splash screen.
Add A Splash Screen Form
You can either add a default splash screen template form provided with VB.NET 2005 by selecting the menu options Project, Add Windows Form and selecting the Splash Screen icon from the dialog box displayed or simply add your own default windows form by selecting the menu options Project, Add Windows Form and selecting the Windows Form icon from the dialog box displayed. Either form can be customised as required. The advantage of using the splash screen template is that the form is already set up with a background image and label controls, populated in the SplashScreen1_Load event, and is automatically named SplashScreen1.vb. The default splash screen is displayed below.
Make the Application Display the Splash Screen on Start Up
From the Solution Explorer open My Project, select the Application tab and then from the Splash screen: drop down select the Splash Screen you have added to your project (by default SplashScreen1)
At this point you can run your project and a splash screen will be displayed for a minimum of 2 seconds before your main project form is displayed.
Customise the Splash Screen Display Time
From the Solution Explorer open My Project, select the Application tab and then activate the View Application Events button. This will load the ApplicationEvents module, which is initially hidden. You then need to add the following code into the MyApplication class, varying the 5000 (5 seconds) literal as required.
Protected
Overrides Function OnInitialize( _
ByVal commandLineArgs As _
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection(Of String) _
) As BooleanMe.MinimumSplashScreenDisplayTime = 5000
Return MyBase.OnInitialize(commandLineArgs)
End Function . . .
Customise The Splash Screen
This is a matter of personal taste. I have included a screenshot of the one I created for work:
This was created from scratch rather than by using the splash screen template. I made our company's logo a background image for a table layout panel and included 5 label controls for Application Name, Version, Company Name, Copyright and a warning message. I also included two status strip controls so that messages can be sent and displayed on the splash screen.