If you need to extract an icon from a Windows executable file, there are a few different ways to go about it. One method is to use the Windows File Explorer. Open the executable file in File Explorer and select “File > Extract Files…” from the menu. This will open the Extract Files window, where you can select the “Icon” option and click on the Browse button. The second method is to use a program called IEXPLORE.EXE. This program can be found in the Accessories folder of your Windows installation disc. Double-click on IEXPLORE.EXE to open it, and then select “File > Open…” from the menu. In the Open dialog box, navigate to where you saved the executable file and click on it to open it. Then select “Extract Files…” from IEXPLORE’s menu, and click on the Icon option in the Extract Files window that appears. The third method is to use a command-line tool called EXTRACTIOSAVER. This tool can be found in your Windows installation disc’s bin folder (usually C:\Windows\System32\bin). Double-click on EXTRACTIOSAVER to open it, and then type “extract ic” at the command prompt (without any quotes). This will launch ExtrActIOSAver’s main window, where you can select which icon format you want to extract files in (BMP, ICO, or JPG). Then click on OK to start extracting files. ..
Sometimes you’re working on a project and need access to a high-quality version of a Windows 10 application icon, but you can’t find one on the internet. Luckily, a free utility called IconViewer makes it easy to extract a high-quality icon from an application’s EXE file. Here’s how.
First, download IconViewer from the developer’s website and install it. It’s important to note that IconViewer doesn’t run in a standalone program window. Instead, it adds a special tab to a file’s Properties window that lets you view and extract a program’s icon of your choice.
For IconViewer to work, you need to have direct access to the EXE file of the application you’d like to extract an icon from. Here’s a quick way to do that: If you have access to a shortcut that points to the application, right-click it and select “Properties.” Then click “Open File Location” in the “Shortcut” tab, and you’ll be taken directly to the EXE’s location in File Explorer.
Otherwise, you can usually find an application’s EXE file in sub-folders of C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86).
When you’ve found the application’s EXE file, right-click it and select “Properties.”
In the Properties window, click the “Icons” tab. This is a special tab that only appears if you install the IconViewer utility.
In the Icons tab, you will see a box listing all of the available icons stored in the EXE file. Some icons will be stored in multiple sizes. In Windows 10, the largest available icon will usually be listed as “256×256, 32-bit (PNG)” in the Icons tab.
Click the icon you’d like to extract, and select the size of the icon in the “Device images” box. Then click the “Save” icon, which looks like a vintage 3.5″ floppy disk.
When the “Save As” dialog pops up, choose the location where you’d like to save it, then type in a file name.
Next, choose the extracted icon’s file format in the “Save As Type” drop-down menu. You can pick “Icon (.ico),” “Bitmap Image (.bmp),” or “PNG Image (.png).” If you’re going to be using the icon with another program, pick “Icon (.ico).” If you’ll be using the icon in a graphic design project and would like to preserve background transparency, choose “PNG Image (*.png).”
Then click “Save.”
After that, the icon will be extracted and saved to the location you chose. You’re free to close the EXE file’s properties window, or extract different icons from the same file. Very handy!
