Today, I made a very nice function for extracting the 256x256 Bitmaps from Vista icons.
Like you, Nathan W, I use it to display the large icon as a Bitmap in "About" box. For example, this code gets Vista icon as PNG image, and displays it in a 256x256 PictureBox:
picboxAppLogo.Image = ExtractVistaIcon(myIcon);
This function takes Icon object as a parameter. So, you can use it with any icons - from resources, from files, from streams, and so on. (Read below about extracting EXE icon).
It runs on any OS, because it does not use any Win32 API, it is 100% managed code :-)
// Based on: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/IconExtractor.aspx
// And a hint from: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/IconLib.aspx
Bitmap ExtractVistaIcon(Icon icoIcon)
{
Bitmap bmpPngExtracted = null;
try
{
byte[] srcBuf = null;
using (System.IO.MemoryStream stream = new System.IO.MemoryStream())
{ icoIcon.Save(stream); srcBuf = stream.ToArray(); }
const int SizeICONDIR = 6;
const int SizeICONDIRENTRY = 16;
int iCount = BitConverter.ToInt16(srcBuf, 4);
for (int iIndex=0; iIndex<iCount; iIndex++)
{
int iWidth = srcBuf[SizeICONDIR + SizeICONDIRENTRY * iIndex];
int iHeight = srcBuf[SizeICONDIR + SizeICONDIRENTRY * iIndex + 1];
int iBitCount = BitConverter.ToInt16(srcBuf, SizeICONDIR + SizeICONDIRENTRY * iIndex + 6);
if (iWidth == 0 && iHeight == 0 && iBitCount == 32)
{
int iImageSize = BitConverter.ToInt32(srcBuf, SizeICONDIR + SizeICONDIRENTRY * iIndex + 8);
int iImageOffset = BitConverter.ToInt32(srcBuf, SizeICONDIR + SizeICONDIRENTRY * iIndex + 12);
System.IO.MemoryStream destStream = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
System.IO.BinaryWriter writer = new System.IO.BinaryWriter(destStream);
writer.Write(srcBuf, iImageOffset, iImageSize);
destStream.Seek(0, System.IO.SeekOrigin.Begin);
bmpPngExtracted = new Bitmap(destStream); // This is PNG! :)
break;
}
}
}
catch { return null; }
return bmpPngExtracted;
}
IMPORTANT! If you want to load this icon directly from EXE file, then you CAN'T use Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(Application.ExecutablePath) as a parameter, because .NET function ExtractAssociatedIcon() is so stupid, it extracts ONLY 32x32 icon!
Instead, you better use the whole IconExtractor class, created by Tsuda Kageyu (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/IconExtractor.aspx). You can slightly simplify this class, to make it smaller. Use IconExtractor this way:
// Getting FILL icon set from EXE, and extracting 256x256 version for logo...
using (TKageyu.Utils.IconExtractor IconEx = new TKageyu.Utils.IconExtractor(Application.ExecutablePath))
{
Icon icoAppIcon = IconEx.GetIcon(0); // Because standard System.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon() returns ONLY 32x32.
picboxAppLogo.Image = ExtractVistaIcon(icoAppIcon);
}
Note: I'm still using my ExtractVistaIcon() function here, because I don't like how IconExtractor handles this job - first, it extracts all icon formats by using IconExtractor.SplitIcon(icoAppIcon), and then you have to know the exact 256x256 icon index to get the desired vista-icon. So, using my ExtractVistaIcon() here is much faster and simplier way :)
Best Answer
You need to have the correct size/bit-depth version in your icon file for whatever context WinForms wanted (e.g. the form's title bar icon, the system tray icon, the taskbar icon, or the desktop shortcut icon) to insure it will work. You have to maintain the transparency too.
Read the following article.