Quick Question about icons

[rifter1818]

How do i get the icon for a file (all i need is the filename of the icon so i can load the icon...) Even shortcuts aswell, windows knows which icon to use therefor the information must be stored somewhere, C# is prefered for any examples. Thanks

[Wile]

The only route i know is through the registry. I'll use text files (.txt) as an example.

 

It takes 2 lookups in the registry:

1)

In the registry, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt -> (Default) value = txtfile.

2)

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile\DefaultIcon -> (Default) value = name of the icon file.

 

Most time the icon is stored in a executable or dll. In that case the name of the executable and the index nr of the dll is given, comma seperated.

 

This trick works for a lot of extensions, I don't know if it works for all extensions though.

Also, there might be a way through the shell to get the default icon associated with a program without using the registry which would make it a bit simpler ;). Just never worked with icons before ;).

[ALEX_0077]

I remember in vb6, I would use the API 'ExtractAssociatedIcon'. (This would return a Handle to the Icon)

 

Maybe Allapi has a .Net example next to the 'ExtractAssociatedIcon' API listing.