Timer in UWP App which isn't linked to the UI
Yes - you can for example use Timer class - though you must remember that it run on separate thread. Example:
private Timer timer;
public MainPage()
{
this.InitializeComponent();
timer = new Timer(timerCallback, null, (int)TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1).TotalMilliseconds, Timeout.Infinite);
}
private async void timerCallback(object state)
{
// do some work not connected with UI
await Window.Current.CoreWindow.Dispatcher.RunAsync(Windows.UI.Core.CoreDispatcherPriority.Normal,
() => {
// do some work on UI here;
});
}
Note that the work dispatched on UI dispatcher may not be processed right away - it depend on dispatcher's workload.
Also remember that this timer runs along with your app and won't work when app is suspended.
I resolved this issue recently using a ThreadPoolTimer class.
ThreadPoolTimer timer = ThreadPoolTimer.CreatePeriodicTimer((t) =>
{
//do some work \ dispatch to UI thread as needed
}, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1));
At present I am not aware of any advantage of this over the Timer solution already posted, but it has functioned well.