Cursor.Current vs. this.Cursor: When Should You Use Each for Cursor Control in .NET?

Cursor.Current vs. this.Cursor: A Distinctive Difference in Cursor Control

In the realm of .Net programming, developers often rely on cursor customization to enhance user experience. While the this.Cursor property has been widely used within WinForms, the introduction of the Cursor.Current property in CodeRush has sparked questions about their differences.

The key distinction lies in their mechanism of action. Cursor.Current directly alters the cursor shape, bypassing the typical response to the WM_SETCURSOR message sent by Windows. In contrast, this.Cursor defines the cursor shape to be used when a WM_SETCURSOR message is received.

While Cursor.Current provides immediate control over the cursor shape, its lifespan can be short-lived. Once the user moves the mouse, the cursor reverts to the shape specified by Control.Cursor through WM_SETCURSOR handling.

To illustrate this behavior, consider a scenario where you click a button on a form, setting Cursor.Current to Cursors.WaitCursor and displaying another form. In such cases, the cursor remains in its default (pointer) state, as Windows continues to send WM_SETCURSOR messages to the control and uses its specified shape.

To effectively display a wait cursor, a combination of Cursor.Current and Application.UseWaitCursor, introduced in .NET 2.0, can be utilized. However, this approach may not always yield desired results, especially when lengthy operations are involved.

To overcome this limitation, developers can employ the HourGlass helper class provided in the answer. This class enables the temporary display of an hourglass cursor while executing time-consuming tasks, utilizing both Cursor.Current and WM_SETCURSOR to ensure proper cursor handling.

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