SYNOPSIS
update ?idletasks?
DESCRIPTION
This command is used to bring the application up to date by entering the event loop repeatedly until all pending events (including idle callbacks) have been processed.
If the idletasks keyword is specified as an argument to the command, then no new events or errors are processed; only idle callbacks are invoked. This causes operations that are normally deferred, such as display updates and window layout calculations, to be performed immediately.
The update ?idletasks? command is useful in scripts where changes have been made to the application's state and you want those changes to appear on the display immediately, rather than waiting for the script to complete. Most display updates are performed as idle callbacks, so update ?idletasks? will cause them to run. However, there are some kinds of updates that only happen in response to events, such as those triggered by window size changes; these updates will not occur in update ?idletasks?.
The update command with no options is useful in scripts where you are performing a long-running computation but you still want the application to respond to events such as user interactions; if you occasionally call update then user input will be processed during the next call to update.
PORTABILITY
Windows 10. Windows Server 2016. Windows Server 2019. Windows 11. Windows Server 2022. Windows Server 2025.
AVAILABILITY
PTC MKS Toolkit for Power Users
PTC MKS Toolkit for System Administrators
PTC MKS Toolkit for Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Interoperability
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers 64-Bit Edition
PTC MKS Toolkit 10.5 Documentation Build 40.