Bitmaps in WPF, disposing of bitmaps in WPF and other issues

The first thing is in WPF you can't set the Source of an Image Control to that of a Bitmap, you need to use the BitmapImage

 

From StackOverflow (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/919041/c-wpf-image-handling-problem):

 

This gives you a build error:

Image I = new Image(@"C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Sample Pictures\Penguins.bmp");
Imagecontrol.Image.Source = I

 

But this works:

Image I = new Image();
BitmapImage bi = new BitmapImage();
bi.BeginInit();
bi.UriSource = new Uri(@"C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Sample Pictures\Penguins.bmp", UriKind.Absolute);
bi.EndInit();
Imagecontrol.Image.Source  = bi;

 

The problem with the above code is that whenever I used it and subsequently tried to delete the file Penguins.jpg or move it, I got an exception.  It seems like we were holding a lock on the file.  So the fix was to do the following:

 

      Imagecontrol.Image.Source = LoadImage(@"C:\Users\Public\Pictures\Sample Pictures\Penguins.bmp");

      private BitmapImage LoadImage(string myImageFile)
        {
            BitmapImage myRetVal = null;

            if (myImageFile != null)
            {
                BitmapImage image = new BitmapImage();

                using (FileStream stream = File.OpenRead(myImageFile))
                {
                    image.BeginInit();
                    image.CacheOption = BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad;
                    image.StreamSource = stream;
                    image.EndInit();
                }

                myRetVal = image;
            }

            return myRetVal;
        }