Windows Forms Background Image

This article explains how to change a Windows Forms background image every second and how to change the background color every second.

Step 1

Go to the VS 2012 Menu and select "File" -> "New" -> "Project..." then select Visual C# -> Window Forms Application and create the Windows Forms application.

windows form application

Step 2

Then we will select the resources.resx file from the Solution Explorer.

Then go to the top of the resources file where we can see multiple options. Here I will select the images option because we want to add an existing file in the resources.resx file.

If you want to store global variables, global image files, global text files and so on in the Windows application then you should go to the resource file for the setting of all these configurations.

add existing file

I have two images in the resource file and then select all the images and press F4 for setting the properties of the images. Then select persistence properties to embed them in the .resx.

Step 3

Then go to the Form1.cs file and write this code to change the background image every second.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace DemoBackgroundImageChange
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
this.BackgroundImage = Properties.Resources.im;
InitializeComponent();
var timer = new Timer();
//change the background image every second
timer.Interval = 1000;
timer.Tick += new EventHandler(timer_Tick);
timer.Start();
}
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//add image in list from resource file.
List<Bitmap> lisimage = new List<Bitmap>();
lisimage.Add(Properties.Resources.im);
lisimage.Add(Properties.Resources.rite);
var indexbackimage = DateTime.Now.Second % lisimage.Count;
this.BackgroundImage = lisimage[indexbackimage];
}
}
}

Output:

Step 4

Code to change the form background color every second.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace DemoBackgroundImageChange
{
public partial class Form2 : Form
{
public Form2()
{
this.BackColor = Color.Green;
InitializeComponent();
var timer = new Timer();
timer.Interval = 1000;
timer.Tick += new EventHandler(timer_Tick);
timer.Start();
}
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//set color in background
var colors = new[] { Color.CornflowerBlue, Color.Green, Color.Aqua, Color.Azure, Color.CadetBlue };
var index = DateTime.Now.Second % colors.Length;
this.BackColor = colors[index];
}}

Output:

output

5 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Mohammad Imran7y ago
How can i upload and download pdf files in database folder instead of direct database? Please tell me code here..
Hieu Ha8y ago
How can I force the background image to fit its container ???
Mohammed Ashraf10y ago
Good one
Manish Kumar Choudhary11y ago
Nice one..
Vithal Wadje11y ago
nice explanation,keep it up