How do I use standard Windows warning/error icons in my WPF app?

Question

I'm making a custom error dialog in my WPF app and I want to use a standard windows error icon. Can I get the OS-specific icon from WPF? If not, does anyone know where to get .pngs with transparency of them? Or know where in Windows to go extract them from?

So far my searches have turned up nothing.

Answer 1

In Visual Studio, use File + Open + File and select c:\windows\system32\user32.dll. Open the Icon node and double-click 103. On my machine that's the Error icon. Back, right-click it and select Export to save it to a file.

That's the iffy way. These icons are also available in Visual Studio. From your Visual Studio install directory, navigate to Common7\VS2008ImageLibrary\xxxx\VS2008ImageLibrary.zip + VS2008ImageLibrary\Annotations&Buttons\ico_format\WinVista\error.ico. The redist.txt file in the Visual Studio install directly explicitly gives you the right to use this icon in your own application.

Answer 2

About using Standard Microsoft Icons.

The vast majority of developers out there don't know that Visual Studio comes with an Image Library. So here goes two links that highlight it:

About using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Image Library.

About using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Image Library.

Answer 3

Can't you simply use Windows API?

Delphi Example:

procedure TForm1.FormClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  errIcon: HICON;
begin
  errIcon := LoadIcon(0, IDI_ERROR);
  DrawIcon(Canvas.Handle, 10, 10, errIcon)
end;

Answer 4

• p/invoke LoadImage with the OIC_ERROR (other icons available, but you wanted the error/stop icon), you need the LR_SHARED flag.
• If you want a different size, p/invoke CopyImage
• Call System.Drawing.Icon.FromHandle with the IntPtr you got from LoadImage
• For GDI+, Draw your Drawing.Icon, or Clone it for later use.
• For WPF, turn it into a BitmapSource
• p/invoke DestroyIcon (twice if you used CopyImage)

You can use .NET's SystemIcons class for roughly the first three steps if the default size is ok, see modosansreves answer

So it could be as simple as:

 Imaging.CreateBitmapSourceFromHIcon(SystemIcons.Error.Handle)

Answer 5

You can draw it like this:

Graphics g = this.CreateGraphics();
g.DrawIcon(SystemIcons.Question, 40, 40);

Answer 6

There is a SystemIcons class, but it need adjustment for WPF needs (i.e. converting Icon to ImageSource).