1). Add an ImageList Control to your WinForm.
2). Populate the ImageList with the pictures/icons you wish to change/display in response to what the user does at run-time with the TreeView, such as expanding, or collapsing nodes.
3). Assign the 'ImageList Control to the 'ImageList property of the 'TreeView
At this point you may want to make an initial pass over the TreeView, assuming it is populated, assigning the Node.ImageIndex property to point to the Image ... in the ImageList ... you want to use for the Node depending on whether it has children, or whatever.
4). If a user expands a Node, for example, you can use the BeforeExpand Event of the TreeView to change the Node's picture : like so : in this case we use the index of the Picture in the ImageList :
private void treeView1_BeforeExpand(object sender, TreeViewCancelEventArgs e)
{
e.Node.ImageIndex = 3;
}
5) You can also set the Node's image by using the ImageKey property which is the string name of the Image
6) There lots of other possible Node Picture variations to use : check out : SelectedImageIndex and SelectedImageKey : You can change Node pictures in the BeforeSelect, AfterSelect and BeforeExpand, events also, depending on the effect you are after.