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

Question

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

youki 1,026

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 52,571 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

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RLWA32 52,571 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

Answer 1

Castorix31 91,876

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 1,026

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 12,736 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

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 1,026

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 1,026 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 1,026 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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