I have one form that serves as the main page of the application. I have a timer on that form that fires every 15 secs to check a table to see if a particular condition exists and refresh the items on the form. The form also contains a button that allows a user to open another form that covers the first form to perform a nonrelated task.

The timer works perfectly, and executes every 15 seconds, as long as the form that it is contained within is the form of focus. When the other form (that covers the first) has the focus, the timer is not 'executing' in the background, until I close that second form.

Probably a really basic question, but how do I get that timer to do its thing even when the form in which it is placed is not the active form or form of focus?