How can I make the progress bar update fast enough?

Question

I\'m using a progress bar to show the user how far along the process is. It has 17 steps, and it can take anywhere from ~5 seconds to two or three minutes depending on the weath

Answer 1

Expanding on the answer given by Silas Hansen, this one seems to give me perfect results every time.

protected void UpdateProgressBar(ProgressBar prb, Int64 value, Int64 max)
{
    if (max < 1)
        max = 1;
    if (value > max)
        value = max;
    Int32 finalmax = 1;
    Int32 finalvalue = 0;
    if (value > 0)
    {
        if (max > 0x8000)
        {
            // to avoid overflow when max*max exceeds Int32.MaxValue.
            // 0x8000 is a safe value a bit below the actual square root of Int32.MaxValue
            Int64 progressDivideValue = 1;
            while ((max / progressDivideValue) > 0x8000)
                progressDivideValue *= 0x10;
            finalmax = (Int32)(max / progressDivideValue);
            finalvalue = (Int32)(value / progressDivideValue);
        }
        else
        {
            // Upscale values to increase precision, since this is all integer division
            // Again, this can never exceed 0x8000.
            Int64 progressMultiplyValue = 1;
            while ((max * progressMultiplyValue) < 0x800)
                progressMultiplyValue *= 0x10;
            finalmax = (Int32)(max * progressMultiplyValue);
            finalvalue = (Int32)(value * progressMultiplyValue);
        }
    }
    if (finalvalue <= 0)
    {
        prb.Maximum = (Int32)Math.Min(Int32.MaxValue, max);
        prb.Value = 0;
    }
    else
    {
        // hacky mess, but it works...
        // Will pretty much empty the bar for a split second, but this is normally never visible.
        prb.Maximum = finalmax * finalmax;
        // Makes sure the value will DEcrease in the last operation, to ensure the animation is skipped.
        prb.Value = Math.Min(prb.Maximum, (finalmax + 1));
        // Sets the final values.
        prb.Maximum = (finalmax * finalmax) / finalvalue;
        prb.Value = finalmax;
    }
}