Elegant Way For This UI to Work?

in VS .NET 4.0 :

So I have some ComboBoxes that query a server for data that match the text in the ComboBox, when the ComBobox text is changed(event).

I want the ComboBox to drop down when the query is done so that the user can see the results and perhaps use them.

The problems :

Rapid-fire queries => Rapid-fire dropdown menu (not very helpful)

Changing the contents of the dropdown causes the text input cursor to reset to the first position in the field. Typing more than 3 characters before the cursor is forced to the first position is very hard. - this is the default behaviour of ComboBox as far as I know

Pressing 'down' to scroll through the list of suggestions causes the very first entry at the top of the dropdown to be put into the text field. Preferably that doesn't happen unless the user hits Return or clicks it.

What I would like :

Overcoming the dropdown-cursor repositioning issue. (this above all)

Scroll list with arrow keys without being forced to select anything.

Limit the rate at which the server is queried.

I have my own solutions in place, but they look terrible at the moment.

I'm handling dropdown and query timings with Timer objects, but my implement开发者_C百科ation prevents a query from going on while the user is typing, and the dropdown doesn't always occur at the right time if the user types too fast or too slow.

Thank you to those that try to help!

I'm not sure if Iunderstand exactly what you want but personally I'd consider skipping the Combobox and use a ListView instead. Possibly a hidden one that I'd only show at the end of the query and then a Textbox that the user can type in.
Feels like you're trying to use the Combobox for something it's not meant for.