How To Extract an Icon from a Windows Program

The sample code given below demonstrates how to extract an icon from a 32-bit Microsoft Windows program or DLL file.

The sample program displays the icon of an application in a picture box. It also shows how to cause the image to remain by using the AutoRedraw property of the picture box.

Step-by-Step Example

1. Start Visual Basic, or from the File menu, click New Project (ALT+F, N) if Visual Basic is already running. Form1 is created by default.
2. Add a Command button and a Picture box control to Form1. Adjust the size of Picture1 so that a 32*32 icon fits inside the picture box.
3. Add the following code to the General Declarations section of Form1:

         Option Explicit
         Private Const MAX_PATH = 260
   
         Private Declare Function GetSystemDirectory Lib "kernel32" Alias _
         "GetSystemDirectoryA" (ByVal lpBuffer As String, _
                                ByVal nSize As Long) As Long
   
         Private Declare Function ExtractIcon Lib "shell32.dll" Alias _
         "ExtractIconA" (ByVal hInst As Long, _
                         ByVal lpszExeFileName As String, _
                         ByVal nIconIndex As Long) As Long
   
         Private Declare Function DrawIcon Lib "user32" (ByVal hdc As Long, _
         ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal hIcon As Long) As Long
   
         Dim path$, nIcon As Long
   
         Private Sub Command1_Click()
             Dim hIcon As Long
   
             hIcon = ExtractIcon(App.hInstance, path$, nIcon)
             Set Picture1.Picture = LoadPicture("") ' Clear the picture box
             Picture1.AutoRedraw = True
             Call DrawIcon(Picture1.hdc, 0, 0, hIcon)
             Picture1.AutoRedraw = False
             Picture1.Refresh
             nIcon = nIcon + 1
         End Sub
   
         Private Sub Form_Load()
         ' Store the full path to the file containing the icon(s).
             path$ = Space$(MAX_PATH)
             Call GetSystemDirectory(path$, MAX_PATH)
             path$ = Trim$(path$) ' Trim trailing blanks & Null terminator
             path$ = Left$(path$, Len(path$) - 1) & "\Shell32.dll"
             nIcon = 0
         End Sub
   
   					

4. Press F5 to run the program. Click Command1 to copy the first icon stored in Shell32.dll to Picture1. Each subsequent click of Command1 displays a different icon.

For more information, please see the following Web page on the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN):