WPF provides a mechanism for displaying a simple graphic image before the main window appears. If you just need to display a graphic without any animation or dynamic content or WPF elements then you can use this mechanism. It is very easy to set up.

Once you’ve loaded your project in Visual Studio, select Splash Screen (WPF) in your WPF project’s Add > New Item dialog. Right-click the name of your project in Solution Explorer, Add > New Item > Splash Screen (WPF) give it a new name if you want and click OK. A graphic PNG file is added to the project and looks like the following, minus the black border and a bit bigger. At least that’s the one I got. Microsoft may change the look in the future.