Using Windows Built-In Icon Library

by on Aug 27, 2008 | 8 comments

Windows comes with a rather attractive set of standard icons which are scattered throughout the operating system. One thing you may not know is you can make use of this icons on any of your shortcuts by going to the shortcut’s properties window and then clicking the ‘Change Icon’ button.

If you do not have a custom icon to use, take a look at Windows’ built in libraries by browsing to one of the following files located in your \Windows\system32 folder:

  • shell32.dll
  • wpdshext.dll
  • moricons.dll (for some retro icons)

Anyone know of any other good DLL or EXE files which have a good set of standard icons?

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  • Luis R.

    I found the following files on Windows XP:

    compstui.dll
    comres.dll
    cscdll.dll
    dmdskres.dll
    dsuiext.dll
    ieframe.dll (seems to be part of Internet Explorer 7)
    inetcplc.dll
    LMUIRes.dll
    mmcndmgr.dll
    mstsc.exe
    mstscax.dll
    netshell.dll
    pifmgr.dll
    progman.exe (good old Program Manager)
    setupapi.dll
    setupdll.dll
    shdocvw.dll
    spmipc.dll
    syssetup.dll
    upnpui.dll
    urlmon.dll
    wiashext.dll
    wmploc.dll
    xpsp2res.dll

    These are not the only ones but are the ones I found more useful. No guarantee that they will all be present in your system.

    • Jason Faulkner

      Nice.

      • http://www.perfectoled.com led billboard

        Nice 2

    • andrew j

      thanks so much, this was exactly what i needed

  • Bones

    Yea, I’ve been using different icons for my desktop; problem is, how do ya keep them there? Every couple of weeks my “custom” icons mysteriously revert back to the standard IE icon for internet shortcuts.File shortcuts remain the same, so it must involve something to do with how I save something, right?
    Any suggestions?
    Thanks

  • Pingback: Extract Embedded Icons Out Of Files | PCMech

  • Josh

    Another thing I don’t think is common knowledge, you can create your own icons. I use Microsoft Paint, resize the image to 32×32 pixels, then save it as *.ico.

  • SpaceOdyssey42

    Thanks for this article! Very helpful!

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