The problem is that the process is running in the same thread, so the form doesn't actually get disabled before the process starts running. The easy thing to do would be use Application.DoEvents() to force it to set everything to disabled before starting the process, but the more professional (and probably safer) method is to run the time-consuming process in another thread.
NOTE: After running into another hitch in my own programming I found that you may have to run Application.DoEvents() before enabling everything again--it will fire any clicks the user made on the disabled controls, instead of waiting for the process to complete--enabling the controls--and THEN firing the click.
Obviously DoEvents is messy and I should be using threads.