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Manage/create icon collections for Win 3.1

db2db2
edited August 2017 in Software
I've got an HP Omnibook that runs Windows 3.1 from ROM. A lot of the binaries are execute-in-place, meaning they aren't actual files anywhere on the system. PROGMAN.EXE is one such program. When adding a program icon in Program Manager, I can't select PROGMAN.EXE to choose from the usual generic icons inside of it. Is there a good tool (doesn't have to run directly on 3.1) for extracting all the icons from a .exe and sticking them into a separate .dll? I figure I can just pull all the icons out of a standard Windows installation on another system.

Comments

  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    I'd recommend the Norton icon editor, that is part of Norton Desktop: https://winworldpc.com/product/norton-d ... or-windows
    There is also Broland Windows Resource Workshop - that can be found in several Borland language products such as Borland C++ https://winworldpc.com/product/borland-c/40
  • db2db2
    Norton Icon Editor doesn't seem to let me save a DLL, and I would have to import the icons one at a time from progman.exe (or whatever other program I'm grabbing them from).

    I'll have to check out Windows Resource Workshop and see what that can do.
  • BlueSunBlueSun
    I use IconsExtract for this. Fairly simple and gets the job done:

    https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/iconsext.html
  • db2db2
    BlueSun wrote:
    I use IconsExtract for this. Fairly simple and gets the job done:

    https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/iconsext.html

    Doesn't seem to work with 16-bit Windows 3.1 executables, unfortunately.
  • BlueSunBlueSun
    Well that figures.

    Looks like BeCyIconGrabber (what a name...) is a good alternative. I tested it with my 3.11 version of progman and it seemed to do the trick:

    http://www.becyhome.de/download_eng.htm#becyicongrabber
  • SomeGuySomeGuy
    db2 wrote:
    Norton Icon Editor doesn't seem to let me save a DLL, and I would have to import the icons one at a time from progman.exe (or whatever other program I'm grabbing them from).
    If I recall correctly, it should let you save in to a "library" file, which is actually a DLL. I used to use it back in the day just for that.
  • db2db2
    SomeGuy wrote:
    db2 wrote:
    Norton Icon Editor doesn't seem to let me save a DLL, and I would have to import the icons one at a time from progman.exe (or whatever other program I'm grabbing them from).
    If I recall correctly, it should let you save in to a "library" file, which is actually a DLL. I used to use it back in the day just for that.

    Interesting, I'll have to give that a try.

    I did manage to find a workable program, although the UI is pretty rough: IcoShow. It's a bit clumsy to use, but it gets the job done. You load up all the icons from all files in a directory, which display in a window, and then you can filter them by name, and extract to a DLL or a couple of other file types.
  • ConstanceConstance
    Hi there ^^

    I remember that back in the days where my family's computer was an IBM PS/2 running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11, I used a shareware program from Axialis called AxIcons, and was able to create my own .dll collection of icons using that.
    It had a nagging screen on startup that stayed for several seconds if you kept using it after the trial period, but as far as I remember, it stayed otherwise functional.

    Edit : actually it was called AX-ICONES (in french) and still seems to work (at least it installs and doesn't crash when it starts) under Windows 7, provided that it's the 32 bits flavor.
    So just for fun, here's how the main interface looks.
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