This is the scenario: user clicks on a button; the button handler starts an asynchronous process and changes the page cursor to an hourglass; after the async process finishes, a callback function changes the cursor back to default.

The problem I see is that changing the page cursor does not propagate to some controls which are still displaying the default cursor. Also, I don't know how to stop user's input while my async process is still running (short of disabling all the controls).

The only solution I can think of is to show a modal dialog with a progress bar, but that's not what I want.

So, these are my questions:
1. How can I change the cursor on the page and all the controls contained in it?
2. How can I disable user's input on a page?

Mouse.OverrideCursor = Cursors.Wait;

I also found the answer to my second question. It is:

Application.Current.Windows[0].IsEnabled = false;