Change EXE icon

[pedro c camargo]

I have a program that has to show a different icon depending of the platform.

I do not want to compile 5 different versions.

Here is my idea.

I am creating a res file with the 5 different icons

BW98 ICON "...."
BWME ICON ".... "
BWNT ICOB "...."
BW2K ICON "...."
BWXP ICON "...."

If I want to show the icon for Win Me then I can have my installer program to
edit the exe file and find BWME and rename it to AWME, this will make the EXe use
this icon for the EXE.

The problem is that I cannot find the STRING "BWME" because I think is in UNICODE FORMAT.

If I use a unicode editor I am able to see the string "BWME"

Can someone help me with this?

Thanks in advance,

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Pedro Camargo

[Steve Hutchesson]

Pedro,

I would be looking at an API call like GetVersionEx() to determine
the OS version and depending on the results, you select which Icon
to display when you use LoadIcon().

I have used GetVersionEx() on win95 and it works OK, tells you the
difference between NT etc ... but you will need to know the data
from each version to look for.

Regards,

[email protected]

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[Semen Matusovski]

Pedro--
Actually to "patch" an Exe is not difficult.

Each ICO file includes one or some icons (for Exe is better to use ICO with 3 icons - 16 * 16, 32 * 32, 48 * 48 * 8bpp).

You can place ICO-files (as RCDATA) into installer and to compile main exe with one of this ICO.

During installation read required ICO as "file" and choose images of icons.
Let's say that you read ICO-file into string variable s.
First six bytes of this string will be ICONDIR structure.

   Type ICONDIR
      idReserved As Word ' // Reserved (must be 0)
      idType  As Word    ' // Resource Type (1 For icons)
      idCount As Word    ' // How many images?
   End Type

Then idCount nomber of ICONDIRENTRY

   Type ICONDIRENTRY
      bWidth As Byte         ' // Width, In Pixels, of the Image
      bHeight As Byte        ' // Height, In Pixels, of the Image
      bColorCount As Byte    ' // Number of colors In Image (0 If >=8bpp)
      bReserved As Byte      ' // Reserved ( must be 0)
      wPlanes As Word        ' // Color Planes
      wBitCount As Word      ' // Bits per pixel
      dwBytesInRes As Dword  ' // How many bytes In this resource?
      dwImageOffset As Dword ' // Where In the file is this image?
   End Type

Using dwBytesInRes and dwImageOffset you can extract from s all images, let's say, into string variables s1$, s2$, s3$.

Do the same procedure with "master" ICO (which was used in main Exe) and retrieve t1$, t2$, t3$.

Now open main exe, search t1$ and replace it by s1$, t2$ by s2$, t3$ by s3$.

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E-MAIL: [email protected]

[pedro c camargo]

Semen:

I was already trying to do that.

But I am having problems extracting the images from the files, I will only have one icon per platform.

Actually, I have more experience with networking and databases and this is getting me crazy.

I was checking the forums and saw that you have a pbcc code that does this.

Would you mind posting the code in the source forum or emailing ut to me. Please.

I have been working on this for the last 3 days and I am not been able to find the solution.


Thanks

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Pedro Camargo

[Semen Matusovski]

Pb/CC is enough large and is able to confuse.
Well, I made a sample.
Take any icon (in sample Excel.Ico).
Include it into resource file.

Following code searches icon's imaging inside Exe, using "row" original ico-file.

   #Compile Exe
   #Dim All
   #Register None
   #Include "Win32Api.Inc"
   #Resource "~Tmp.pbr"
   
   '% PROGRAM  ICON Excel.Ico
   
   $FileIco = "excel.ico" ' <-- Change

   Type ICONDIR
      idReserved As Word ' // Reserved (must be 0)
      idType  As Word    ' // Resource Type (1 For icons)
      idCount As Word    ' // How many images?
   End Type

   Type ICONDIRENTRY
      bWidth As Byte         ' // Width, In Pixels, of the Image
      bHeight As Byte        ' // Height, In Pixels, of the Image
      bColorCount As Byte    ' // Number of colors In Image (0 If >=8bpp)
      bReserved As Byte      ' // Reserved ( must be 0)
      wPlanes As Word        ' // Color Planes
      wBitCount As Word      ' // Bits per pixel
      dwBytesInRes As Dword  ' // How many bytes In this resource?
      dwImageOffset As Dword ' // Where In the file is this image?
   End Type


   Function PbMain
      ' Read Exe
      Dim TmpAsciiz As Asciiz * %MAX_PATH, sExe As String
      GetModuleFileName GetModuleHandle(""), TmpAsciiz, SizeOf(TmpAsciiz)
      Open TmpAsciiz For Binary Shared As #1: Get$ #1, Lof(1), sExe: Close #1

      ' Read original ico-file
      Dim sIco As String, i As Long
      Open $FileIco For Binary Shared As #1: Get$ #1, Lof(1), sIco: Close #1

      ' Find icons inside Exe
      Dim pIconDir As ICONDIR Ptr
      pIconDir = StrPtr(sIco)
      ReDim IconDirEntry(1 To @pIconDir.idCount) As ICONDIRENTRY At pIconDir + SizeOf(@pIcondir)
      
      Dim ssIco As String
      
      For i = 1 To @pIconDir.idCount
         ssIco  = Mid$(sIco, IconDirEntry(i).dwImageOffset + 1, IconDirEntry(i).dwBytesInRes)
         MsgBox Str$(IconDirEntry(i).bWidth) + " *" + Str$(IconDirEntry(i).bHeight) + " : Mid$(sExe, " + _
            Str$(Instr(-1, sExe, ssIco)) + "," + Str$(IconDirEntry(i).dwBytesInRes) + ")"
      Next
   End Function

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E-MAIL: [email protected]

[Eric Pearson]

Pedro --

> show a different icon depending of the platform.

Are you trying to affect the icon that is shown in the title bar when your program is run, or the icon that is shown in Microsoft Explorer next to the file name, or both?

If you are trying to affect the title bar icon, then no file-patching is necessary. Simply have your program detect the Windows version at runtime, and use runtime code to change the title bar icon. Search this BBS for WM_SETICON and you will find many examples. (If you are using PB/CC it is somewhat more difficult, but not much.)

If you are trying to affect the icon that is shown by Explorer (or on the Windows desktop, etc.) have you considered what will happen if your program is installed on a network? For example, my office network is based on Windows NT4, but we have workstations of all types connected to the network. Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, and 2000. If you patch the icon in the EXE file to match the Windows version of the workstation or the server, it would show the wrong icon on many different workstations in our office. (This may or may not be an issue for you, but I thought I should mention it.)

-- Eric


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Perfect Sync Development Tools
Perfect Sync Web Site
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[pedro c camargo]

Semen:

I got it working with your code, but it requires for the icons to have the same size.

I do not know how to make them of the same size.

How about replacing the whole resource, I am only using the resource file for the icon.

I really apreciate your assistance,

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Pedro Camargo

[Semen Matusovski]

Pedro --
> it working with your code, but it requires for the icons to have the same size.
> I do not know how to make them of the same size.

It's necessary special efforts to make icons with different size.
Many icon editors simply are not able to produce icons with different sizes.

Download shareware MicroAngelo and make all icons 32 * 32 (256 colors).

> How about replacing the whole resource, I am only using the resource file for the icon.

RSRC does this work fine. But I don't see reasons to use it in this case.

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E-MAIL: [email protected]

[pedro c camargo]

Semen:

Thanks for your help, I created an big icon in the main exe with all black pixes and when I replace the icon
I just fill out the differennce with chr$(0) and now is working fine.

I could not have been done this without your help,

Thank you, thank you, thank you.



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Pedro Camargo