The System.Windows.MessageBox.Show() method has an overload which takes an owner Window as the first parameter. If we create an invisible owner Window which we then close after a specified time, it's child message box would close as well.
Window owner = CreateAutoCloseWindow(dialogTimeout);
MessageBoxResult result = MessageBox.Show(owner, ...
So far so good. But how do we close a window if the UI thread is blocked by the message box and UI controls can't be accessed from a worker thread? The answer is - by sending a WM_CLOSE windows message to the owner window handle:
Window CreateAutoCloseWindow(TimeSpan timeout)
{
Window window = new Window()
{
WindowStyle = WindowStyle.None,
WindowState = System.Windows.WindowState.Maximized,
Background = System.Windows.Media.Brushes.Transparent,
AllowsTransparency = true,
ShowInTaskbar = false,
ShowActivated = true,
Topmost = true
};
window.Show();
IntPtr handle = new WindowInteropHelper(window).Handle;
Task.Delay((int)timeout.TotalMilliseconds).ContinueWith(
t => NativeMethods.SendMessage(handle, 0x10 /*WM_CLOSE*/, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero));
return window;
}
And here is the import for the SendMessage Windows API method:
static class NativeMethods
{
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
}