How to extract an icon from executable and save it on disk properly? Any lightweight library?

youki 1,021

Is there something in c++? (Windows API/ WinRT) I've tried some solutions online and none of them work. I didn't find anything useful on Github either. I want to display the icons regardless of whether the exe is still there, so I want to save the icon; only 1 size is enough. (I think the difficult part is saving the HIcon, I can't find anything about the process.)

RLWA32 45,701 Reputation points

2024-01-20T13:46:35.1666667+00:00

Have you tried any of the suggested solutions in this SO thread ? -- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2289894/how-can-i-save-hicon-to-an-ico-file

1 answer

Castorix31 86,041

SaveIconToFile from https://github.com/Skight/wndspy/blob/b89cc2df88ca3e58b26be491814008aaf6f11122/Source/Contrib/SaveIcon.cpp works for me (tested on Jumbo icon of Notepad (SHGetFileInfo with SHGFI_SYSICONINDEX + SHGetImageList with SHIL_JUMBO )

youki 1,021

OK, I'll test that right away. I cobbled something together with AI and it works perfectly (#include <wincodec.h>). But I'm not really sure what's going on there, lol.

void Tester::SaveImageAsPng(HICON hIcon, const wchar_t* filePath) {  	IWICImagingFactory* pWICFactory = nullptr; 	IWICBitmap* pWICBitmap = nullptr; 	IWICStream* pWICStream = nullptr;  	// Schritt 1: Initialisieren Sie die WIC-Factory. 	CoCreateInstance(CLSID_WICImagingFactory, nullptr, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_PPV_ARGS(&pWICFactory));  	// Schritt 2: Erstellen Sie das Bitmap aus dem Icon. 	HRESULT hr = S_OK; 	hr = pWICFactory->CreateBitmapFromHICON(hIcon, &pWICBitmap);  	// Überprüfen Sie den Rückgabewert und behandeln Sie Fehler entsprechend. 	if (FAILED(hr)) 	{ 		// Fehlerbehandlung... 	}  	// Schritt 3: Erstellen Sie einen WIC-Stream zum Speichern des Bitmaps als PNG-Datei. 	hr = pWICFactory->CreateStream(&pWICStream); 	if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) 	{ 		// Annahme: pszFilePath ist der Pfad zur PNG-Datei, in der das Bitmap gespeichert werden soll. 		hr = pWICStream->InitializeFromFilename(filePath, GENERIC_WRITE); 	}  	// Überprüfen Sie den Rückgabewert und behandeln Sie Fehler entsprechend. 	if (FAILED(hr)) 	{ 		// Fehlerbehandlung... 	}  	// Schritt 4: Erstellen Sie einen WIC-Encoder für PNG. 	IWICBitmapEncoder* pWICBitmapEncoder = nullptr; 	hr = pWICFactory->CreateEncoder(GUID_ContainerFormatPng, nullptr, &pWICBitmapEncoder); 	if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) 	{ 		hr = pWICBitmapEncoder->Initialize(pWICStream, WICBitmapEncoderNoCache); 	}  	// Überprüfen Sie den Rückgabewert und behandeln Sie Fehler entsprechend. 	if (FAILED(hr)) 	{ 		// Fehlerbehandlung... 	}  	// Schritt 5: Erstellen Sie einen WIC-Bitmap-Frame und fügen Sie das Bitmap hinzu. 	IWICBitmapFrameEncode* pWICFrameEncode = nullptr; 	hr = pWICBitmapEncoder->CreateNewFrame(&pWICFrameEncode, nullptr); 	if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) 	{ 		hr = pWICFrameEncode->Initialize(nullptr); 	}  	// Überprüfen Sie den Rückgabewert und behandeln Sie Fehler entsprechend. 	if (FAILED(hr)) 	{ 		// Fehlerbehandlung... 	}  	// Schritt 6: Kopieren Sie das Bitmap in den Frame. 	hr = pWICFrameEncode->WriteSource(pWICBitmap, nullptr); 	if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) 	{ 		hr = pWICFrameEncode->Commit(); 	}  	// Überprüfen Sie den Rückgabewert und behandeln Sie Fehler entsprechend. 	if (FAILED(hr)) 	{ 		// Fehlerbehandlung... 	}  	// Schritt 7: Schließen Sie den Encoder ab. 	hr = pWICBitmapEncoder->Commit();  	// Überprüfen Sie den Rückgabewert und behandeln Sie Fehler entsprechend. 	if (FAILED(hr)) 	{ 		// Fehlerbehandlung... 	}  	// Schritt 8: Freigeben Sie die Ressourcen. 	if (pWICFrameEncode) 	{ 		pWICFrameEncode->Release(); 	}  	if (pWICBitmapEncoder) 	{ 		pWICBitmapEncoder->Release(); 	}  	if (pWICStream) 	{ 		pWICStream->Release(); 	}  	if (pWICBitmap) 	{ 		pWICBitmap->Release(); 	}  	if (pWICFactory) 	{ 		pWICFactory->Release(); 	} }

Xiaopo Yang - MSFT 12,726 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-01-22T02:08:45.4633333+00:00

IShellItemImageFactory Exposes a method to return either icons or thumbnails for Shell items. If no thumbnail or icon is available for the requested item, a per-class icon may be provided from the Shell.

You can also use IShellItemImageFactory or directly load Icons from binary. @youki, please mark answer for completion of the question if it works.

youki 1,021

Hello,

@Castorix31 @RLWA32 Took forever again. I tried a lot and found the following really simple solution. My question would be why with FileIO::WriteBufferAsync it “apparently” works fine without co_await, but when I use it with co_await then the PNG is 0 bytes, so empty. ...and is that a problem?

(PS: I'm using it in an unpackaged WinUI3 project.)

winrt::Windows::Foundation::IAsyncAction IconHandler::SaveThumbnailAsPngAsync()
{
	// Get output folder.
	auto& destinationFolder = co_await winrt::Windows::Storage::StorageFolder::GetFolderFromPathAsync(L"OutputFolderPath");
	// Get output file.
	auto& destFile = co_await destinationFolder.CreateFileAsync(L"test.png", CreationCollisionOption::ReplaceExisting);
	auto& destFileStream = co_await destFile.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode::ReadWrite);
	// Get exe thumb.
	const auto& fileStorage = co_await winrt::Windows::Storage::StorageFile::GetFileFromPathAsync(winrt::to_hstring(L"ExeFilePath"));
	const auto& fileThumbnail = co_await fileStorage.GetThumbnailAsync(winrt::Windows::Storage::FileProperties::ThumbnailMode::DocumentsView, 16);
	Windows::Storage::Streams::Buffer inputBuffer(fileThumbnail.Size());
	try
	{
		Windows::Storage::Streams::IBuffer iBuffer = co_await fileThumbnail.ReadAsync(inputBuffer, inputBuffer.Capacity(), Windows::Storage::Streams::InputStreamOptions::None);
		// This line is not working with co_await...weird!
	    Windows::Storage::FileIO::WriteBufferAsync(destFile, iBuffer);
	}
	catch (const std::exception& e)
	{
		OutputDebugStringA("\nError:\n");
		OutputDebugStringA(e.what());
	}
}

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15494965/how-save-bitmapimage-winrt

youki 1,021 Reputation points

2024-02-13T22:57:39.4866667+00:00

um, already found it. That one line was unnecessary. //auto& destFileStream = co_await destFile.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode::ReadWrite);

That was stupid again. :)
youki 1,021 Reputation points

2024-03-29T15:11:46.02+00:00

Found my own post. :)
GetThumbnailAsync & GetScaledImageAsThumbnailAsync doesn't seem to work properly, at least not as expected.
In general it gets the right size or scales it (?!) but sometimes it scales the icon/image that only the white space around the icon is increased. I can't discover any difference in the files contained in the executable. Must be something like the expected quality for the method or so???

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How to extract an icon from executable and save it on disk properly? Any lightweight library?

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