App Icon for C++ project

Explorer displays the first icon resource image in the .exe whose size matches the current explorer view. For example, if you select View\Details in Explorer it will look for a 16x16 image in the first icon resource in the .exe. If you select View\Icons, it will look for a 32x32 image. If it can't find an exact match, it will try to synthesize one from the closest matching image.

In C# or VB, the compilers will set the icon for you from project settings but C++ projects have traditionally allowed you to edit all the resources in your project and provided the editors to do so right in the IDE.

In order to change the Details View icon image Explorer shows for a Visual C++ wizard-generated Winforms app (which by default provides you with an icon with 16x16 and 32x32 images), you can go into the resource view and select the 16x16 image for the app.ico icon (From the main menu after clicking in the icon editor window: Image\Current Icon Image Types\16x16, 16 colors). Edit that icon and rebuild your project.

If you want that icon to appear on the caption bar of your winforms app, bring up the Properties window with the main form selected in the Winforms designer window and set the Icon property.

Hope this helps,

-Ron Pihlgren
VC++ Testing

I added the folowing two lines to my main forms construtor:

System::ComponentModel::ComponentResourceManager^ resources = (gcnew System::ComponentModel::ComponentResourceManager(MainForm::typeid));

this->Icon = gcnew System:: Drawing::Icon(L"<path>\\app.ico");

(where <path> is an absolute path on my system.)

The above worked. But, if anyone knows... How do I get the designer code to work? And, am I doing myself any harm by using an absolute path? I am thinking the resource gets loaded into the assembly, and the fact that it is loaded from an absolute path is not a concern.