How to Extract Icon Files (.ICO) from Windows .EXE and .DLL Files

This short guide will explain how to extract the icons that are stored inside of .exe and .dll files in Windows.

Using the free App GetIcons, you can extract the icon files (.ico) from any Windows program (.exe) or Dynamic Link Library (.dll). GetIcons works in all versions of Windows from XP all the way to Windows 10.

1. Download GetIcons and extract GetIcons.exe from within the .zip file. It’s a stand-alone application, so just put it to a folder on your hard drive (I put it in C:\Program Files\ and then created a shortcut to it on my desktop). Double-click the program (or the short-cut to it) to start it up.



2. As you’ll see, the interface is quite basic. For this example, we’ll extract an icon from the Windows file explorer.exe – although you can use any .exe or .dll file you wish. To find explorer.exe, start by expanding the menu for your C: drive.



3. Expand the Windows menu.



4. Scroll down a bunch until you see explorer.exe and select it by clicking on it once.



5. In the main panel you’ll be presented with a list of all the icons found inside of explorer.exe.



6. Select one of the icons and then click the big Save… button found in the top row of the app. When the ‘Save As’ window appears navigate to the folder you want to save the icon file in, give it a name and click the Save button.



7. And now that icon will be saved as an .ico file. Repeat the above steps to extract and save icons from any of your Windows exe or dll files. That’s it!

You can use your newly saved icon files with other Windows apps too by changing an app shortcut icon.

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