Where Windows Explorer gets its “Folder Up” and “Back” icons from?

Question

XP-specific answers preferred, but others are welcome too.

Answer 1

From %windir%\System32\Shell32.dll

Answer 2

Many of the icons from Windows, Visual Studio and Office are delivered with Visual Studio. You can find the image library in the Common7 folder. Visual Studio 2005 focuses on Office 2003 and Windows XP, while Visual Studio 2008 comes with many Vista icons.

You should not read an icon from a system DLL, because the icon might cease to exist in future versions because it is an implementation detail.