We’ve seen that icons and cursors know where they came from, and the window manager uses this information when you ask it to change the size of an icon. But not all icons carry this information, only icons created by passing a HINSTANCE and a resource name.

You can use this to your advantage if you want to destroy the module and resource information associated with an icon. For example, the CreateIconIndirect function creates an icon from raw bitmap information without reference to an HINSTANCE or a resource name. This allows you to create icons at runtime, but it also allows you to create an icon that “throws away” the bonus information.

HICON CopyIconWithoutResourceInfo(HICON hicoSrc)
{
  ICONINFO ii;
  HICON hico = NULL;
  if (GetIconInfo(hicoSrc, &ii)) {
    hico = CreateIconIndirect(&ii);
    if (ii.hbmMask) DeleteObject(ii.hbmMask);
    if (ii.hbmColor) DeleteObject(ii.hbmColor);
  }
  return hico;
}

Now, throwing away this information is a desperation move, because it prevents the window manager from using the original resource information when resizing an icon, resulting in ugly stretched icons.

You might even be throwing this information away by mistake. For example, if your program is asked to produce an icon, it’s best if you load the icon with a function like LoadImage because that records the bonus information; if the caller decides to resize the icon, it can do so with the CopyImage function while retaining full fidelity. On the other hand, if you use a function like ExtractIcon or CreateIconFromResource, that will not have the bonus information, and any icon stretching that takes place will end up looking pretty ugly.

[Raymond is currently away; this message was pre-recorded.]