[RESOLVED] Get the Icon from an open window

[ididntdoit]

If I have a Window open (not mine) (I have the hWnd and titlebar caption), how can I get it's icon somehow a) into an imagelist and b) into a file? (just getting a handle to the icon would be enough, I can draw and take it from there)

I've tried using this code:

Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "User32.dll" Alias "SendMessageA" ( _
   ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByRef lParam As Any) As Long
Private Declare Function DestroyIcon Lib "User32.dll" (ByVal hIcon As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function DrawIconEx Lib "User32.dll" (ByVal hDC As Long, _
   ByVal xLeft As Long, ByVal yTop As Long, ByVal hIcon As Long, _
   ByVal cxWidth As Long, ByVal cyWidth As Long, ByVal iStepIfAniCur As Long, _
   ByVal hBrFlickerFreeDraw As Long, ByVal diFlags As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "User32.dll" Alias "FindWindowA" ( _
   ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long

Private Const ICON_SMALL As Long = 0
Private Const ICON_BIG As Long = 1
Private Const ICON_SMALL2 As Long = 2
Private Const WM_GETICON As Long = &H7F
Private Const DI_NORMAL As Long = &H3

Private Sub Form_Load()
     Dim fhWnd As Long
     Dim hIcon As Long
     Dim LoopMode As Long
     
     fhWnd = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Untitled - Notepad")
     
     Me.AutoRedraw = True
     hIcon = SendMessage(fhWnd, WM_GETICON, ICON_SMALL, 0)
     If Not hIcon Then
          hIcon = SendMessage(fhWnd, WM_GETICON, ICON_BIG, 0)
          DrawIconEx Me.hDC, 0, 0, hIcon, 0, 0, 0, 0, DI_NORMAL
          DestroyIcon hIcon
     End If
End Sub

but it only works for Internet explorer, no other programs that I can see. Is there some other constant that I should be using, or is there some better way I could do this? I don't really want to use the EXE icon specifically because many programs have multiple icons in their exe and I want the one used in that specific window.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[LaVolpe]

Here is an idea. Per MSDN documentation, it doesn't say a window must respond to WM_GETICON. So, obviously, not all do. It also suggests that a window can farm off the request to its Default Window Procedure. I tried sending the request via a call to DefWindowProc but that didn't work either. Then one more thought came to mind, maybe if WM_GETICON doesn't work you can try to get the handle from the class itself. Once you have the hWnd, call GetClassLong and pass GCL_HICON & see if that works

[ididntdoit]

Would it change anything if I said I have the window subclassed? Could I do something myself if I have the program subclassed to get the icon out of the top left corner of the screen? I know that the Alt+Tab program built into XP gets an icon for ANY window, so there must be a way...

[Siddharth Rout]

Is this what you want?

I have spent almost an entire morning here so I hope that you will look at it...

Requirements
1 Form
1 Commanbutton
1 PictureBox

When you run the project and click the commandbutton, please enter the exact name of the window from which you want to retrieve the icon...

Hope this helps...

Edit:
Snapshot attached

[LaVolpe]

I know that the Alt+Tab program built into XP gets an icon for ANY window, so there must be a way...

Umm, why not use GetClassLong? That appears to be a perfect solution since it will return either the small or large icon. Using WM_GETICON would be preferred I would think in case the application actually changes its icon during runtime, but if it won't supply the icon with WM_GETICON, GetClassLong should get you something. It worked for me, for windows that didn't respond to WM_GETICON, like NotePad, Spy++, and others.

Edit: Even if you are subclassing the window, unless you are intercepting and not forwarding WM_GETICON, then the subclassing isn't an issue in this specific scenario.

[Edgemeal]

but it only works for Internet explorer, no other programs that I can see.

Not sure this helps, but heres a sub ripped from one of my old apps that got the the icon from a running program for me.

Public Sub AddTask(ByVal hwnd As Long)
    
    Dim hWndIcon     As Long
    Dim hIcon        As Long
    Dim lpdwResult   As Long
    
    hWndIcon = GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_HWNDPARENT)
    If hWndIcon = 0 Then hWndIcon = hwnd
    
    ' Get the standard hIcon
    If SendMessageTimeout(hWndIcon, WM_GETICON, 1, ByVal 0&, SMTO_BLOCK, 500, lpdwResult) Then
        If lpdwResult Then
            hIcon = lpdwResult
        Else
            hIcon = GetClassLong(hWndIcon, -14)
        End If
    End If
    
    
    If (hIcon) Then '
        Form1.ProgramIcon(0).Cls
        Call DrawIconEx(Form1.ProgramIcon(0).hdc, 0, 0, hIcon, 13, 13, 0, 0, 3)
        Call DestroyIcon(hIcon)
    End If

End Sub

[ididntdoit]

HAHA! It worked!!! Thanks a million LaVolpe! You rock!!


EDIT: Whoops - forgot to reload the page before my response :P I didn't see anything since my last post.

@Coolsid: LaVolpe's suggestion works simpler, so I think I'll go with it, but I can use your code to get the EXE path of a running program (that was another thing I haden't gotten around to trying to do). Thank you for the code!

@edgemeal: that's the code I originally had I think. As LaVolpe pointed out only certain programs return an icon for WM_GETITCON

Thanks everyone!

[Edgemeal]

Can you show me the better code?
EDIT btw, was just testing my old app (uses code I posted) and noticed a couple icons look ugly, like for a running copy of VB6 the icon doesn't look as good as if I use one of the extract icon from file methods. ???

[ididntdoit]

Public Declare Function GetClassLong Lib "user32.dll" Alias "GetClassLongA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long


Public Declare Function DrawIconEx Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hDC As Long, ByVal xLeft As Long, ByVal yTop As Long, ByVal hIcon As Long, ByVal cxWidth As Long, ByVal cyWidth As Long, ByVal iStepIfAniCur As Long, ByVal hBrFlickerFreeDraw As Long, ByVal diFlags As Long) As Long


private sub form_load()
     Dim i As Long
     i = GetClassLong(ByVal CLng(Mid(Node.key, 5)), GCL_HICON)
     DrawIconEx iPic.hDC, 0, 0, i, 0, 0, 0, 0, DI_NORMAL
end sub

[Edgemeal]

Oh OK, thought you were doing something different, looks like setting the size of the icon in DrawIconEx is whats making some icons look crappy for me.

[Siddharth Rout]

@ididntdoit: Till the time that code helped you... I'm okay with it