On 16 Sep 98 at 7:12, David Jonathan Justman wrote:

> I would like to change the icons on some of my shortcuts.

> 1.  Where does Windows keep its icon collection, so I can see what
> my choices are?

  Icons can come in two forms:  .ICO files, or resources stored in a
.DLL, .EXE, or other "module" file.

  If you right-click on a shortcut to an executable, and select
Properties, and then go to the Shortcut pane and click on the Change
Icon button, Windows will show you the icons that SHELL32.DLL
contains.  There's a Browse button to go and look in other files if
you like.
  If the shortcut is to a non-module file, there isn't a Change Icon
button on this screen -- you have to go in through the File Types
pane in Explorer|View|Options, and your change will affect all files
of the selected extension/type.

> 2.  How can I preview them before installing?

  Both places use the same "select a new icon" dialog which shows you
what the choices look like.

> 3.. Just for my general knowledge:  are ico files stored in some
> conventional graphics format, so that in principle they can be
> viewed on a generic viewer?  which format?

  Icons are bitmaps, like .BMP files.  But like cursors, they include
a second bitmap -- the transparency mask -- which an ordinary .BMP
doesn't have.
  You can probably open and view a .ICO file as if it was a .BMP
file.  But (a) this won't help you with icons bound as resources, and
(b) if you save from a BMP viewer, the result is likely to be ugly
(if it works at all).

David G

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