Change WPF controls from a non-main thread using Dispatcher.Invoke

The first thing is to understand that, the Dispatcher is not designed to run long blocking operation (such as retrieving data from a WebServer...). You can use the Dispatcher when you want to run an operation that will be executed on the UI thread (such as updating the value of a progress bar).

What you can do is to retrieve your data in a background worker and use the ReportProgress method to propagate changes in the UI thread.

If you really need to use the Dispatcher directly, it's pretty simple:

Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(
  DispatcherPriority.Background,
  new Action(() => this.progressBar.Value = 50));

When a thread is executing and you want to execute the main UI thread which is blocked by current thread, then use the below:

current thread:

Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke(MethodName,
    new object[] { parameter1, parameter2 }); // if passing 2 parameters to method.

Main UI thread:

Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(
    DispatcherPriority.Background, new Action(() => MethodName(parameter)));

japf has answer it correctly. Just in case if you are looking at multi-line actions, you can write as below.

Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(
  DispatcherPriority.Background,
  new Action(() => { 
    this.progressBar.Value = 50;
  }));

Information for other users who want to know about performance:

If your code NEED to be written for high performance, you can first check if the invoke is required by using CheckAccess flag.

if(Application.Current.Dispatcher.CheckAccess())
{
    this.progressBar.Value = 50;
}
else
{
    Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(
      DispatcherPriority.Background,
      new Action(() => { 
        this.progressBar.Value = 50;
      }));
}

Note that method CheckAccess() is hidden from Visual Studio 2015 so just write it without expecting intellisense to show it up. Note that CheckAccess has overhead on performance (overhead in few nanoseconds). It's only better when you want to save that microsecond required to perform the 'invoke' at any cost. Also, there is always option to create two methods (on with invoke, and other without) when calling method is sure if it's in UI Thread or not. It's only rarest of rare case when you should be looking at this aspect of dispatcher.