Here is a test framework to show what I am doing:

1. create a new project
2. add a tabbed control
3. on tab 1 put a button
4. on tab 2 put a check box
5. paste this code for its code

(use default names for controls)

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    private List<bool> boolList = new List<bool>();
    BindingSource bs = new BindingSource();
    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        boolList.Add(false);
        bs.DataSource = boolList;
        checkBox1.DataBindings.Add("Checked", bs, "");
        this.button1.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.button1_Click);
        this.checkBox1.CheckedChanged += new System.EventHandler(this.checkBox1_CheckedChanged);

    }
    bool updating = false;
    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        updating = true;
        boolList[0] = true;
        bs.ResetBindings(false);
        Application.DoEvents();
        updating = false;
    }

    private void checkBox1_CheckedChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (!updating)
            MessageBox.Show("CheckChanged fired outside of updating");
    }
}

The issue is if you run the program and look at tab 2 then press the button on tab 1 the program works as expected, however if you press the button on tab 1 then look at tab 2 the event for the checkbox will not fire untill you look at tab 2.

The reason for this is the controll on tab 2 is not in the "created" state, so its binding to change the checkbox from unchecked to checked does not happen until after the control has been "Created".

checkbox1.CreateControl() does not do anything because according to MSDN

CreateControl does not create a control handle if the control's Visible property is false. You can either call the CreateHandle method or access the Handle property to create the control's handle regardless of the control's visibility, but in this case, no window handles are created for the control's children.

I tried getting the value of Handle(there is no public CreateHandle() for CheckBox) but still the same result.

Any suggestions other than have the program quickly flash all of my tabs that have data-bound check boxes when it first loads?

EDIT-- per Jaxidian's suggestion I created a new class

public class newcheckbox : CheckBox
{
    public new void CreateHandle()
    {
        base.CreateHandle();
    }
}

I call CreateHandle() right after updating = true same results as before.