.NET Windows Forms design time rules

Question

I have an object that starts a thread, opens a file, and waits for input from other classes. As it receives input, it writes it to disk. Basically, it\'s a thread safe data

Answer 1

You could also use this to check if the Visual Studio Designer is running the code:

public static bool DesignMode
{
    get {  return (System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName == "devenv"); }
}

Then in Form_Load:

if (!DesignMode)
{
    // Run code that breaks in Visual Studio Designer (like trying to get a DB connection)
}

However, this is less elegant than using the LicensManager.UsageMode, but it works (until Microsoft changes the name of the process Visual Studio runs under).