App Size / Resources

I am working on a C++ project with about 36 icons. I have sample projects attached with icons as well. When I compile this project in VC++, I am in Release build minimized size and it still compiles to 84.0 kb!

I took the .res file from the Release folder and added it to a VB project, compiled that into an exe and it is only 60.0 kb. One problem with this though is using a resource editor or icon extractor all of the icons can be extracted from the exe in both the VC++ Release folder and the VB project exe.

I am using the icons for buttons, so I added the icons to buttons in another VB project. Then when I compile the exe, the icons cannot be extracted from it. It is only 56.0 kb. This may be confusing but look at the attached projects.

Questions:
1) How can I shrink the size of the VC++ exe without resorting to something as complicated as this http://www.hailstorm.net/papers/smal....htm#smallapps
(If you can attach a sample file maybe. I could not get it to compile.)

2) How can I compile a VC++ exe without exposing the icons used on buttons to an icon extractor?

attached file.