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ExtractIconW function (shellapi.h)

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Gets a handle to an icon from the specified executable file, DLL, or icon file.

To retrieve an array of handles to large or small icons, use the ExtractIconEx function.

Syntax

HICON ExtractIconW(
  [in] HINSTANCE hInst,
  [in] LPCWSTR   pszExeFileName,
       UINT      nIconIndex
);

Parameters

[in] hInst

Type: HINSTANCE

Handle to the instance of the application that calls the function.

[in] pszExeFileName

Type: LPCTSTR

Pointer to a null-terminated string that specifies the name of an executable file, DLL, or icon file.

nIconIndex

Type: UINT

Specifies the zero-based index of the icon to retrieve. For example, if this value is 0, the function returns a handle to the first icon in the specified file.

If this value is -1, the function returns the total number of icons in the specified file. If the file is an executable file or DLL, the return value is the number of RT_GROUP_ICON resources. If the file is an .ICO file, the return value is 1.

If this value is a negative number not equal to –1, the function returns a handle to the icon in the specified file whose resource identifier is equal to the absolute value of nIconIndex. For example, you should use –3 to extract the icon whose resource identifier is 3. To extract the icon whose resource identifier is 1, use the ExtractIconEx function.

Return value

Type: HICON

The return value is a handle to an icon. If the file specified was not an executable file, DLL, or icon file, the return is 1. If no icons were found in the file, the return value is NULL.

Remarks

When it is no longer needed, you must destroy the icon handle returned by ExtractIcon by calling the DestroyIcon function.

Note

The shellapi.h header defines ExtractIcon as an alias which automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows XP [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform Windows
Header shellapi.h
DLL Shell32.dll
API set ext-ms-win-shell-shell32-l1-2-1 (introduced in Windows 10, version 10.0.10240)

See also

ExtractAssociatedIcon

ExtractAssociatedIconEx

ExtractIconEx