<p>In the Flex framework a custom preloader can be used while the site is loading.</p>

<p>In the <a href="http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=app_container_4.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Adobe docs</a> it specifies that '<strong>the progress bar [preloader] is displayed if less than half of the application is downloaded after 700 milliseconds of downloading.</strong>'</p>

<p>However I ALWAYS want the preloader to appear instantly since I know that 95% of our users are first time visitors and the site is over 500kb. I dont want people to have to wait .7 seconds for the preloader animation to appear.</p>

<p>I would think in theory that it is possible to 'monkey patch' the framework to remove this .7 second limitation. I dont have time to figure out how, and I've never done it before.</p>

<p>Anybody help?</p>

This is in mx.preloaders::DownloadProgressBar.as, line 1205 in the
```
showDisplayForDownloading
```
function.
Old school monkey-patching is out with AS3, but you can either edit the Flex source and compile yourself a new framework.swc (apparently a pain), or just include it in your source path (source paths override .swcs); or derive your own preloader class from DownloadProgressBar that just overrides
```
showDisplayForDownloading
```
and returns true.
You can find the framework source in '%PROGRAMFILES%\Adobe\Flex Builder 3[ Plug-in]\sdks\3.0.0\frameworks\projects\framework\src', then the package path. Change the sdk version if you are using 3.1, or whatever.