{"id":111706,"date":"2025-10-20T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/?p=111706"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:38:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T23:38:18","slug":"20251020-00","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20251020-00\/?p=111706","title":{"rendered":"What about the icons in pifmgr.dll?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some time ago, I discussed the intended uses of the icons in progman.exe and moricons.dll<\/a> and we even looked at those icons (progman.exe<\/a>, moricons.dll<\/a>).<\/p>\n

But what about pifmgr.dll?<\/p>\n

The pifmgr.dll file was added in Windows 95. Its job was, as the name might suggest, to manage PIF files, which are Program Information Files that describe how to set up a virtual MS-DOS session for running a specific application.<\/p>\n

Whereas the icons in moricons.dll<\/tt> were created with specific programs in mind<\/a> (list<\/a>) and the icons in progman.exe<\/tt> were created for general categories of applications<\/a>, the story behind the icons in pifmgr.dll<\/tt> is much less complicated.<\/p>\n

The icons in pifmgr.dll<\/tt> were created just for fun. They were not created with any particular programs in mind, with one obvious exception. They were just a fun mix of icons for people to use for their own homemade shortcut files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"MS-DOS<\/td>\nMS-DOS logo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Umbrella\"<\/td>\nUmbrella<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Play<\/td>\nPlay block<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Newspaper\"<\/td>\nNewspaper<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Apple<\/td>\nApple with bite<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Cloud<\/td>\nCloud with lightning<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Tuba\"<\/td>\nTuba<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Beach<\/td>\nBeach ball<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Light<\/td>\nLight bulb<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Architectural<\/td>\nArchitectural column<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Money\"<\/td>\nMoney<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Desktop<\/td>\nDesktop computer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Keyboard\"<\/td>\nKeyboard<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Filing<\/td>\nFiling cabinet<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Desk<\/td>\nDesk calendar<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Clipped<\/td>\nClipped documents<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Crayon<\/td>\nCrayon with document<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Pencil\"<\/td>\nPencil<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Pencil<\/td>\nPencil with document<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Dice\"<\/td>\nDice<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Window<\/td>\nWindow with clouds<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Eye<\/td>\nEye chart with magnifying class<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Dominos\"<\/td>\nDominos<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Hand<\/td>\nHand holding playing cards<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Soccer<\/td>\nSoccer ball<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Purse\"<\/td>\nPurse<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Wizard's<\/td>\nDecorated tree<\/span> Wizard’s hat with wand<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Race<\/td>\nRace car with checkered flag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Cruise<\/td>\nCruise ship<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Biplane\"<\/td>\nBiplane<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Inflatable<\/td>\nInflatable raft<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Traffic<\/td>\nTraffic light<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Rabbit\"<\/td>\nRabbit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Satellite<\/td>\nSatellite dish<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Crossed<\/td>\nCrossed swords<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Sword<\/td>\nSword and shield<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Flail<\/td>\nFlail weapon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Dynamite<\/td>\nDynamite and plunger<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I don’t know if it was intentional, but I find it interesting that clouds were the theme image for Windows 95, and we have a window with clouds. At the same time we have an apple with a bite, but the bite is on the left<\/i> hand side, as opposed to the right hand side in the logo of Apple Computer.<\/p>\n

Coincidence? Tip of the hat? Subtle jab? You decide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just for fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":111744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-111706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oldnewthing","tag-history"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

Just for fun.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}