I'm trying to make some sense out of an application Ive been handed in order to track down the source of an error. Theres a bit of code (simplified here) which creates four threads which in turn populate list views on the main form. Each method gets data from the database and retrieves graphics from a resource dll in order to directly populate an imagelist and listview.

From what Ive read on here (link) updating UI elements from any thread other than the UI thread should not be done, and yet this appears to work?

Thread t0 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(PopulateListView1));
t0.IsBackground = true;
t0.Start();

Thread t1 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(PopulateListView2));
t1.Start();

Thread t2 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(PopulateListView3));
t2.Start();

Thread t3 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(PopulateListView4));
t3.Start();

The error itself is a System.InvalidOperationException "Image cannot be added to the ImageList." which has me wondering if the above code is linked in some way.

Iis this method of populating the UI recommended and if not what are the possible complications resulting from it?