When encountering issues with async/await while building a Windows Forms application recently I came across this helpful class that allows you to await returning to the initial (usually UI) thread…

public struct SynchronizationContextAwaiter : INotifyCompletion, IEquatable<SynchronizationContextAwaiter>
    {
        private static readonly SendOrPostCallback postCallback = state => (state as Action)?.Invoke();

        private readonly SynchronizationContext context;

        public SynchronizationContextAwaiter(SynchronizationContext context) => this.context = context;

        public bool IsCompleted => context == SynchronizationContext.Current;

        public static bool operator !=(SynchronizationContextAwaiter left, SynchronizationContextAwaiter right) =>
            !(left == right);

        public static bool operator ==(SynchronizationContextAwaiter left, SynchronizationContextAwaiter right) =>
            left.Equals(right);

        public override bool Equals(object? obj) =>
            obj is SynchronizationContextAwaiter awaiter && this.Equals(awaiter);

        public bool Equals(SynchronizationContextAwaiter other) =>
            EqualityComparer<SynchronizationContext>.Default.Equals(this.context, other.context);

        public override int GetHashCode() => HashCode.Combine(this.context);

        [SuppressMessage("Performance", "CA1822:Mark members as static", Justification = "Reviewed.")]
        public void GetResult()
        {
        }

        public void OnCompleted(Action continuation) => context.Post(postCallback, continuation);
    }

It goes along with this extension method…

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets an awaiter for the specified synchronization context.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="context">The synchronization context.</param>
        /// <returns>The <see cref="SynchronizationContextAwaiter"/>.</returns>
        public static SynchronizationContextAwaiter GetAwaiter(this SynchronizationContext context) =>
            new SynchronizationContextAwaiter(context);

And you use it like this…

                var syncContext = SynchronizationContext.Current; // Grab UI thread

                // TODO: Do long running async stuff here

                if (syncContext != null)
                {
                    await syncContext;
                }

                // TODO: Do original/UI thread stuff here

This is a somewhat cleaner way to handle the multi-threading problem in async methods in a STAThread application.

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