WPF Threading Backgroundworker issue - wpf

Question

I have two different background thread who does similar thing but at different time in my WPF application. both are right now independent background worker.
1) first thread runs when you launch application, it downloads all images from connected printer to PC location.
2) second thread does the same thing when use click on some link in my application.
As both worker are independent, even though first thread's downloading process are still running, if user click on link the second thread start their work too
What I would like to do is, when user click on 2nd thread, is there any way I will know about status of first thread ? I mean if i know that first thread is doing it's work then I don't want to even start second thread. I need only second thread when first one got cancelled by some other reason.
I heard about Mutex but I dont know how it works. Pls share ur idea and some example if you know how to handle this.
Thanks
Dee

Answer 1

I would recommend that you make a manager to handle the background threads. Maybe something like this:
interface IDownloadManager
{
bool IsRunning {get; }
void Start();
void Stop();
event Action DownloadStarted;
event Action DownloadCompleted;
event Action<Image> ImageDownloaded;
}
This manager should handle the starting/stopping and monitoring of the backgroundworkers. That way, you won't start more than one download process.