System Icon Does not Show in Shortcut or Taskbar

[Gary Beene]

Sometimes I like using a system icon for my app, just to pretty it up without having to include a #Resource or to distribute the ico file, like this ...

         hIcon = LoadIcon(ByVal %Null, ByVal %IDI_Question)  'use a system icon for the dialog
         SendMessage hDlg, %WM_SetIcon, %ICON_BIG, hIcon        'use a system icon for the dialog

The icon shows in the Dialog caption bar, but not in a shortcut to the EXE nor on the TaskBar when the EXE is running. Can I use a system icon for those two purposes?

[Kerry Farmer]

Gary

I use icons so that I can have easy to use references in my task bar for selecting a program. I also have one program which I want to demonstrate it is running so it puts a nice recognisable icon in the task bar. I like single big colour icons as they stand out. Actually they also make the program stand out in the folder listing.

But I am quite interested - what is wrong with using #Resource icons?

Kerry

ps I have decided to use British spelling in my messages!!

[Gary Beene]

Hi Kerry!

I use #Resource all the time - love it. But sometimes I want to post an example that is easier for forum folks to test out - something that does not depend on other files so that I don't have to post links and folks here don't have to download anything but the code.

[Borje Hagsten]

Try setting %ICON_SMALL too. This works for me:

  DIALOG SEND hDlg, %WM_SETICON, %ICON_SMALL, LoadIcon(%NULL, BYVAL %IDI_APPLICATION)
  DIALOG SEND hDlg, %WM_SETICON, %ICON_BIG, LoadIcon(%NULL, BYVAL %IDI_APPLICATION)

[Borje Hagsten]

But quick test shows setting only big icon show small icon in taskbar when running too, so don't understand the problem. Only have Win7, so maybe later system treats icons slightly different?

[Gary Beene]

Howdy, Borje!

Win10 here. I pulled out just the basic code. When I compile it, the Explorer listing of the EXE does not show the Question icon.

If I create a shortcut to the EXE, the shortcut icon is not the Question.

If I run the app, the TaskBar does have the Question icon. But on the gbProcedures app I recently posted, using similar code, the TaskBar does not display the Question. Likewise, adding the small icon as you suggest does not display the Question in gbProcedures. I'll have to look at that to see what I might have done to make it fail.

'Compilable Example:
#Compile Exe
#Dim All
%Unicode = 1
#Include "Win32API.inc"

Global hDlg,hIcon As Dword

Function PBMain() As Long
   Dialog Default Font "Tahoma", 12, 1
   Dialog New Pixels, 0, "Email Date",300,300,350,200, %WS_OverlappedWindow To hDlg
   Dialog Show Modal hDlg Call DlgProc
End Function

CallBack Function DlgProc() As Long
   Select Case Cb.Msg
      Case %WM_InitDialog
         hIcon = LoadIcon(ByVal %Null, ByVal %IDI_Question)  'use a system icon for the dialog
         SendMessage hDlg, %WM_SetIcon, %ICON_BIG, hIcon        'use a system icon for the dialog
   End Select
End Function

[John Montenigro]

Gary,

This is a TWAG... (Totally Wild A$$ Guess)

Thought crossed my mind:
Maybe Win won't display the icon if there's not enough space for it? (similar to when a control doesn't have enough height for a font)

So I don't know if this is relevant, but I recalled seeing something that may be worth a look:
Look at the API Help for: GetSystemMetrics, under SM_CXSMICON, SM_CYSMICON...

I hope this isn't a rabbit-hole looking for a guest!

-John

[Ray Crumrine]

Sometimes I like using a system icon for my app, just to pretty it up ...

I ran across your post but I have a different issue. I want the little icon in the title bar and the Powerbasic docs say it is supposed to be there if you select the ws_caption and ws_sysmenu styles. I'm running Win 10 and I find out that the icon sometimes displays and sometimes it doesn't when the dialog opens. Oddly enough it seems to display while you are designing the dialog in PBForms and almost always in the "Test" mode of PBForms. So I did some digging and found on Microsoft that you need to SendMessage WM_SETICON when the dialog is initialized. Exactly the stuff noted here! I like the way Borje does it because it requires less setup and is cleaner. I'm only doing the small icon because that is all I care about. Worked like a charm! Seems like this may be a slip up on PB part.

[Dale Yarker]

I ran across your post but I have a different issue. I want the little icon in the title bar and the PowerBASIC docs say it is supposed to be there if you select the ws_caption and ws_sysmenu styles.

No. Those styles must be set for DIALOG SET ICON or SendMessage %WM_SETICON to show the icon.

I am unable to duplicate the sometimes icon doesn't show problem. Either the DIALOG SET ICON (DDT method) or the SendMessage (API/SDK method) will work in PBWin 9.xx or 10.xx for dialogs and GRAPHIC WINDOWs. In PBCC the console icon is automatic if icon is a resource. GRAPHIC WINDOWs in PBCC require SendMessage.

PBForms 2.00 is older than PBWin 9.05. PBWin 9.xx only had #RESOURCE "xxxx.pbr" command, not all the #RESOURCE xxxx, ###, "xxxxx.xxx" commands that PBWin 10.xx has. So PBForms works as designed "at-the-time"; no slip-ups.

Personally, when I use PBForms with PBWin 10, and have all the controls I need, I view RC Code in PBForms and copy the pieces I need to #RESOURCE lines in the .bas file, then delete the xxxx.pbr line.

If still having problem with icons, please post sample code that fails and the downloadable icon that does not display every time.

Cheers,

(added - I expect TXT.WINDOW to behave like GRAPHIC WINDOW (Re icons) in PBWin and PBCC. (not tested))

[Stuart McLachlan]

Personally, when I use PBForms with PBWin 10, and have all the controls I need, I view RC Code in PBForms and copy the pieces I need to #RESOURCE lines in the .bas file, then delete the xxxx.pbr line.

Me too.
I go further. There's a lot of extraneous stuff in the PBForms code so I just copy the dialog and control layout and style definitions etc and scrap the rest. I've got a template which already includes manifest and version info #RESOURCE statements.)

[Stuart McLachlan]

Seems like this may be a slip up on PB part.

No slip up. That's what DIALOG SET ICON does

[Stuart McLachlan]

Howdy, Borje!

Win10 here. I pulled out just the basic code. When I compile it, the Explorer listing of the EXE does not show the Question icon.

If I create a shortcut to the EXE, the shortcut icon is not the Question.

If I run the app, the TaskBar does have the Question icon. But on the gbProcedures app I recently posted, using similar code, the TaskBar does not display the Question. Likewise, adding the small icon as you suggest does not display the Question in gbProcedures. I'll have to look at that to see what I might have done to make it fail.

You need to be aware that Windows caches icons. If you change the icon after you have compiled your application once, Windows will frequently remember the old icon and not reflect the change. In extremis, you can delete iconcache.db in %appdata%\local and/or all of the iconcache*.db files in
\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer. (depending on Windows version)


For the process to delete the cache files, see https://www.howtogeek.com/232779/how...in-windows-10/

[Ray Crumrine]

PBForms 2.00 is older than PBWin 9.05. PBWin 9.xx only had #RESOURCE "xxxx.pbr" command, not all the #RESOURCE xxxx, ###, "xxxxx.xxx" commands that PBWin 10.xx has. So PBForms works as designed "at-the-time"

That explains it but the PB web page indicates they are still shipping version 2.01 today.

If still having problem with icons...

Nope, Borge's code line fixes it perfectly. I'll just add "PBR" in the generated code [and the path to the file to be safe but that's another story]

Thanks

[Dale Yarker]

That explains it but the PB web page indicates they are still shipping version 2.01 today.

Why not? It still saves a lot of arithmetic (location & sizes), and typing (styles ORed). Easy change to PBWin 10 (without PBR).

Cheers,