I did read your post, and if you were interested in a workaround, it might
be something like

       /// <summary
       /// The main entry point for the application.
       /// </summary
       [STAThread]
       static void Main()
       {
           Application.EnableVisualStyles();
           Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

           Form1 splash = new Form1();
           ProgressBar progress = new ProgressBar();
           progress.Maximum = 3;
           progress.Dock = DockStyle.Bottom;
           splash.Controls.Add(progress);

           Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(delegate {
Application.Run(splash); }));
           t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
           t.Start();

           Form1 main = new Form1();

           main.Load += delegate
           {
               Thread.Sleep(200);//simulate a long load time
               splash.Invoke(new ThreadStart(delegate {
progress.Increment(1); }));
               Thread.Sleep(200);//simulate a long load time
               splash.Invoke(new ThreadStart(delegate {
progress.Increment(1); }));
               Thread.Sleep(200);//simulate a long load time
               splash.Invoke(new ThreadStart(delegate {
progress.Increment(1); }));
               Thread.Sleep(200);//simulate a long load time
            };

           main.Shown += delegate
           {
               splash.Invoke( new ThreadStart(delegate {
splash.Close(); }) );
           };

           Application.Run(main);

       }

David