.

Summary

The ExtractAssociatedIcon API

C# Signature:

[DllImport("shell32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr ExtractAssociatedIcon(IntPtr hInst, StringBuilder lpIconPath,
   out ushort lpiIcon);

User-Defined Types:

None.

Notes:

None.

Tips & Tricks:

Please add some!

Sample Code:

Consider a Winform application with a OpenFileDialog that helps pick some file. This is then passed to the ExtractAssociatedIcon method to get the icon and display in a picture box.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Data;

using System.Drawing;

using System.Text;

using System.Windows.Forms;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace GenericTestApp

{

    public partial class IconTest : Form
    {
    [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr ExtractAssociatedIcon(IntPtr hInst, StringBuilder lpIconPath,
       out ushort lpiIcon);

    [DllImport("shell32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr ExtractIcon(IntPtr hInst, string lpszExeFileName, int nIconIndex);

    public IconTest()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void btnBrowse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        openFileDialog1.ShowDialog();

        ushort uicon;
        StringBuilder strB = new StringBuilder(openFileDialog1.FileName);
        IntPtr handle = ExtractAssociatedIcon(this.Handle, strB, out uicon);
        Icon ico = Icon.FromHandle(handle);

        pictureBox1.Image = ico.ToBitmap();
    }
    }

}

Alternative Managed API:

Use static method 'System.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(string filePath)' in assembly 'System.Drawing.dll' (.net 2)

Documentation

ExtractAssociatedIcon on MSDN