1. Introduction
2. How it's all done
3. Declares
4. The Registry
5. Drawing the Icon
6. The Contingency
7. The Complete Code

Comments

1. Anish Sane
   22 May 2007 at 18:53
   does any one want to extract image used for icon?
   the icon may be in an exe file or dll file.
   this is a veryyyyyyyy long way, and there are ready softwares available for it.
   
   but it is discovered by me, so posting
   
   in folder options, create a dummy file extension
   click advanced,
   change the icon of that file extension to desired icon; from dll or exe file.
   
   open google talk (sounds funny naa)
   now create a file with that extension
   using file transfer option, send that file to someone
   it is not needed that actual transfer shd take place, u only need to initiate the transfer & then u can abort the transfer.
   now go to
   %userprofile%\Local Settings\Temp\Google Talk\File Extensions
   the icon file is seen there as a png image
   open it with mspaint or similar software & save it as 256 color bitmap
   change its extension to .ico from .bmp
   & u r done
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. TOKO CHU YVES
   16 Jul 2005 at 17:46
   I'll never be thankful enough to have decided to join Developer Fusion. It's real fun to have what's needed to start with programming language. I am really amazed of the progresses i have done in two weeks in learning progamming with visual basic
   
   Thanks a lot for the help and the good job you're doing
   
   Yves
3. Anazor Tochkwu
   02 Jun 2005 at 21:52
   THAT WAS A NICE JOB.
   
   I AM AN UNDERGRADUATE STUDYING COMPUTER PRORAMMING. i WILL NEED MORE EXPLANATION ON THIS TOPIC.
   
   tOCHUKWU.
4. jab
   18 Sep 2003 at 16:13

   Absolutely brilliant! Works a treat.
   

   
   THANKS VERY MUCH!!!

5. Phil Couling
   13 Sep 2003 at 20:13

   Looks like my reply is too large to fit in one post so I've put it here.
   

   
   Hope this helps

6. jab
   13 Sep 2003 at 19:10

   Lovely coding couling! Its helped me alot.
   

   
   I'm not too hot with API work though and have had trouble incorporating your two lots of code.  I'm ultimately trying to display the associated file icons from a directory of scanned files from a database on a Listview (like Explorer), using a 16x16 picture box. 32x32 is no problem (in theoy) but I'm unable to get my head round the 16x16 bit.
   

   
   Any help VERY much appreciated.

7. Phil Couling
   20 Feb 2003 at 21:01
   Thanks for your (repeatedly) very kind words
8. Durgesh Pimparkar
   18 Feb 2003 at 08:55
   Very Nice Very Nice Very Nice Very Nice Very Nice Very Nice !!!
   Really Very Nice
9. Phil Couling
   19 Jan 2003 at 10:01

   In the properties of the picturebox, set "AutoRedraw" to "True"
   

   
   If you want to draw to other objects, you can either
   1.    

   Code:

   “GetDefaultIcon Text1.Text, Picture1.hDC”

    When you use this line to call the function, simply replace picture1 with the name of the object.  This will only work if the object has a “hDC” property at runtime (when the program is run)
   

   
   2.    If your object has a “Picture” or “Image” property then you could use:
   

   Code:

   “GetDefaultIcon Text1.Text, Picture1.hDC”
   Object.Picture = Picture1.Image

   
   Or
   Code:

   “GetDefaultIcon Text1.Text, Picture1.hDC”
   Object.Image = Picture1.Image

   
   

   
   Hope this helps

10. FXander
    18 Jan 2003 at 13:19

    Hi, this is great code! I just have one question...
    

    
    When form minimize or is hidden behind another one, the drawn icon just dissapear, how can I make it persistant?? how can I convert it to a Picture Object I could manipulate to assign it to any other control???
    

    
    

11. Phil Couling
    04 Jan 2003 at 13:27

    Sorry this took a while
    Ok, Small Icons:
    These will be a little more complex, you will need to use two more windows APIs:
    

    
    ExtractIconEx (instead of ExtractIconEx)
    DrawIconEx (instead of DrawIcon)
    

    
    These functions do basically the same thing, but they are capable of much more. ExtractIconEx can extract any number of Icons into two arrays (although in the example below I’ve only used two long variables “lngSmall” and “lngLarge”).  DrawIconEx will allow you to draw the small icon as a 16 X 16 image instead of 32 X 32.  This is just a small example of how to use the two functions, hopefully you can see how to alter the origional code.  You will need:
    

    
    two picture boxes (to receve the images)
    an icon (in the code Ive used the path "C:\1.ico")
    A command button (the subroutine is "command1_CLick()")
    

    
    So for some code:
    

    
    

    Code:

    Private Declare Function ExtractIconEx Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ExtractIconExA" (ByVal lpszFile As String, ByVal nIconIndex As Long, phiconLarge As Long, phiconSmall As Long, ByVal nIcons As Long) As Long
    Private Declare Function DestroyIcon Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hIcon As Long) As Long
    Private Declare Function DrawIconEx Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hDC As Long, ByVal xLeft As Long, ByVal yTop As Long, ByVal hIcon As Long, ByVal cxWidth As Long, ByVal cyWidth As Long, ByVal istepIfAniCur As Long, ByVal hbrFlickerFreeDraw As Long, ByVal diFlags As Long) As Long
    

    
    Private Const DINORMAL = &H3 'Draw both the image mask in image data
    Private Const DIDEFAULTSIZE = &H8 'Draw the icon at 32 X 32
    

    
    Private Sub Command1Click()
       Dim Retval As Long, lngLarge As Long, lngSmall As Long, hbrush As Long
       
       '                                  \/firstIcon            \/Number of icons
       Retval = ExtractIconEx("C:\1.ico", 0, lngLarge, lngSmall, 1)
       
       Retval = DrawIconEx(Picture1.hDC, 0, 0, lngLarge, 0, 0, 0, 0, DINORMAL Or DIDEFAULTSIZE)
       'note: DIDEFAULTSIZE tells windows to ignore the two parameters after "lngLarge".
           
       Retval = DrawIconEx(Picture2.hDC, 0, 0, lngSmall, 16, 16, 0, 0, DINORMAL)
       '"16,16 tells windows to draw the Icon 16 X 16 pixals
       
       '                                  left   top   Icon   width  height  for drawing animated cursors      brush type     Flags
       'Retval = DrawIconEx(Picture2.hDC,   0,    0,   lngSmall,  16,    16,              0,                           0,      DINORMAL)
       
       Retval = DestroyIcon(lngLarge) 'As in the article
       Retval = DestroyIcon(lngSmall)
    End Sub

    
    

    
    To get ExatractIconEx to retrieve more than one Icon, replace lngLarge and lngSmall with arrays and set the last parameter “nIcons” to the number of icons to extract.
    

    
    If this isn't clear just say so.

12. TomBrowett
    02 Jan 2003 at 20:49

    Fantastic tutorial. Especially as I've just started a project, this evening, that'll have file lists and icons - solved quite a head scratcher for me.
    

    
    But I was wandering, is it a simple matter to use the small versions of the icons, as you get in explorer? If so, could someone tell me where to look for how
    

    
    Tom.
    

13. Developer Fusion Bot
    01 Jan 1999 at 00:00

    This thread is for discussions of File Extensions: Finding the default Icon.