I think you are doing the database stuff completely backwards. Forget Visual Studio. Matter of fact, close the application. You need to learn the DB side first, regardless if you use SQL, MySQL, etc. Since it looks like you have gotten farther in MySQL, I would use that. You can run queries straight from the workbench. So, run your own insert statements, learn how to do select statements, etc. Then once you have the DB working, you simply copy the queries and paste in VS. Your form being unresponsive most likely has nothing to do with MySQL, rather your code in VS. Running a transaction with only 100 rows should take almost no time at all. You shouldn't notice the UI lock up at all. For giggles, run a select * in workbench, it will tell you how long it takes. It's probably so fast it will say 0.