How do you prevent a RichTextBox from refreshing its display?

Question

I have a RichTextBox where I need to update the Text property frequently, but when I do so the RichTextBox \"blinks\" annoyingly as it refreshes all throughout a method call

Answer 1

Here is complete and working example:

    private const int WM_USER = 0x0400;
    private const int EM_SETEVENTMASK = (WM_USER + 69);
    private const int WM_SETREDRAW = 0x0b;
    private IntPtr OldEventMask;       

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
    private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    public void BeginUpdate()
    {
        SendMessage(this.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);
        OldEventMask = (IntPtr)SendMessage(this.Handle, EM_SETEVENTMASK, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);
    }       

    public void EndUpdate()
    {
        SendMessage(this.Handle, WM_SETREDRAW, (IntPtr)1, IntPtr.Zero);
        SendMessage(this.Handle, EM_SETEVENTMASK, IntPtr.Zero, OldEventMask);
    }