Add icon to Windows resources in Visual Studio

Question

I am trying to add an icon to an .NET exe built in the Visual Studio, but somehow it does not work.

Here are steps to reproduce the problem: 1. I created a new Windows Form Application application: New Project -> Windows Form Application 2. Open the resources in it: Right click on Solution -> Properties -> Resources 3. Tried to add an icon file to it: Icons -> Add Resources -> Add Exising File-> and chose an existing icon.

It appeared that the icon was added. So, I build the exe file and closed the solution, but the resulting exe file did not contain the icon in the Windows resources. I verified that by opening the exe file by Visual Studio. The Visual Studio showed resources to me, which contained the manifest and version, but no icon.

The question: what am I doing wrong? Why does the added icon not appear in the Windows resources?

Kolichikov Kolichikov · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-02T19:34:30

Do the resources show up in your solution explorer? If not, I would check here and follow those steps. Additionally, to check that the resource is in fact added, you can add something like this

MessageBox.Show(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceNames().Aggregate((x,y)=> x + " " + y ));

Note that for this to show your resource, you have to navigate to the resource in solution explorer, open properties on it, and select Build Action -> Embedded Resource. (You can also use Resource, see article here for the difference between the two options)

As a final note, after I did this, I tried using your procedure to open the .exe in Visual Studio, and I was indeed unable to find the resources in the view. However opening up the same exe in dotPeek, I was able to find the whole image I used embedded in the code, under Resources.

Add icon to Windows resources in Visual Studio

2 Answers