Where can I find the default icons used for folders and applications?

Question

I\'m trying to load the default HICON that explorer displays for:

• An open folder
• An exe that has no embedded default icon of its own. This can also

Answer 1

Use the SHGetFileInfo API.

SHFILEINFO sfi;
SecureZeroMemory(&sfi, sizeof sfi);

SHGetFileInfo(
    _T("Doesn't matter"),
    FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY,
    &sfi, sizeof sfi,
    SHGFI_ICON | SHGFI_SMALLICON | SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES);

will get you the icon handle to the folder icon.

To get the 'open' icon (i.e., the icon where the folder is shown as open), also pass SHGFI_OPENICON in the last parameter to SHGetFileInfo().

[edit]

ignore all answers which tell you to poke around in the registry! Because that won't work reliably, will show the wrong icons if they're customized/skinned and might not work in future windows versions. Also, if you extract the icons from system dlls/exes you could get into legal troubles because they're copyrighted.