I've searched through the forums here and most of the info on creating icons is pretty old. There was one good link to the way Microsoft created icons for XP, but that article was created in July 2001 and expects you to use Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I would think there might be newer methods, programs, techniques, etc.

I have googled, but there is so much of information, its hard to weed out the good info from the bad. I wanted to hear some opinions from you guys who have actually created your own, what programs or techniques work the best? Things to watch out for, etc.

Thanks.