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Icons (Menus and Other Resources)

  • Article

An icon is a picture that consists of a bitmap image combined with a mask to create transparent areas in the picture. The term icon can refer to either of the following:

  • A single icon image. This is a resource of type RT_ICON.
  • A group of images, from which the system or an application can choose the most appropriate icon based on size and color depth. This is a resource of type RT_GROUP_ICON.

In This Section

Name Description
About Icons Discusses icons.
Using Icons Discusses how to perform tasks related to icons.
Icon Reference Contains the API reference.

Icon Functions

Name Description
CopyIcon Copies the specified icon from another module to the current module.
CreateIcon Creates an icon that has the specified size, colors, and bit patterns.
CreateIconFromResource Creates an icon or cursor from resource bits describing the icon.
CreateIconFromResourceEx Creates an icon or cursor from resource bits describing the icon.
CreateIconIndirect Creates an icon or cursor from an ICONINFO structure.
DestroyIcon Destroys an icon and frees any memory the icon occupied.
DrawIcon Draws an icon or cursor into the specified device context.
DrawIconEx Draws an icon or cursor into the specified device context, performing the specified raster operations, and stretching or compressing the icon or cursor as specified.
DuplicateIcon Creates a duplicate of a specified icon.
ExtractAssociatedIcon Retrieves a handle to an indexed icon found in a file or an icon found in an associated executable file.
ExtractIcon Retrieves a handle to an icon from the specified executable file,DLL, or icon file.
ExtractIconEx Creates an array of handles to large or small icons extracted from the specified executable file, DLL, or icon file.
GetIconInfo Retrieves information about the specified icon or cursor.
GetIconInfoEx Retrieves information about the specified icon or cursor. GetIconInfoEx extends GetIconInfo by using the newer ICONINFOEX structure.
LoadIcon Loads the specified icon resource from the executable (.exe) file associated with an application instance.
LookupIconIdFromDirectory Searches through icon or cursor data for the icon or cursor that best fits the current display device.
LookupIconIdFromDirectoryEx Searches through icon or cursor data for the icon or cursor that best fits the current display device.
PrivateExtractIcons Creates an array of handles to icons that are extracted from a specified file.

Icon Structures

Name Description
ICONINFO Contains information about an icon or a cursor.
ICONINFOEX Contains information about an icon or a cursor. Extends ICONINFO. Used by GetIconInfoEx.
ICONMETRICS Contains the scalable metrics associated with icons. This structure is used with the SystemParametersInfo function when the SPI_GETICONMETRICS or SPI_SETICONMETRICS action is specified.