LoadIconA function (winuser.h)

Article
10/13/2021
2 minutes to read

Loads the specified icon resource from the executable (.exe) file associated with an application instance.

Note This function has been superseded by the LoadImage function.

Syntax

HICON LoadIconA(
  [in, optional] HINSTANCE hInstance,
  [in]           LPCSTR    lpIconName
);

Parameters

[in, optional] hInstance

Type: HINSTANCE

A handle to an instance of the module whose executable file contains the icon to be loaded. This parameter must be NULL when a standard icon is being loaded.

[in] lpIconName

Type: LPCTSTR

The name of the icon resource to be loaded. Alternatively, this parameter can contain the resource identifier in the low-order word and zero in the high-order word. Use the MAKEINTRESOURCE macro to create this value.

To use one of the predefined icons, set the hInstance parameter to NULL and the lpIconName parameter to one of the following values.

Value	Meaning
IDI_APPLICATION MAKEINTRESOURCE(32512)	Default application icon.
IDI_ASTERISK MAKEINTRESOURCE(32516)	Asterisk icon. Same as IDI_INFORMATION.
IDI_ERROR MAKEINTRESOURCE(32513)	Hand-shaped icon.
IDI_EXCLAMATION MAKEINTRESOURCE(32515)	Exclamation point icon. Same as IDI_WARNING.
IDI_HAND MAKEINTRESOURCE(32513)	Hand-shaped icon. Same as IDI_ERROR.
IDI_INFORMATION MAKEINTRESOURCE(32516)	Asterisk icon.
IDI_QUESTION MAKEINTRESOURCE(32514)	Question mark icon.
IDI_SHIELD MAKEINTRESOURCE(32518)	Security Shield icon.
IDI_WARNING MAKEINTRESOURCE(32515)	Exclamation point icon.
IDI_WINLOGO MAKEINTRESOURCE(32517)	Default application icon. Windows 2000: Windows logo icon.

Return value

Type: HICON

If the function succeeds, the return value is a handle to the newly loaded icon.

If the function fails, the return value is NULL. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

LoadIcon loads the icon resource only if it has not been loaded; otherwise, it retrieves a handle to the existing resource. The function searches the icon resource for the icon most appropriate for the current display. The icon resource can be a color or monochrome bitmap.

LoadIcon can only load an icon whose size conforms to the SM_CXICON and SM_CYICON system metric values. Use the LoadImage function to load icons of other sizes.

Note

The winuser.h header defines LoadIcon as an alias which automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.

Requirements


Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	winuser.h (include Windows.h)
Library	User32.lib
DLL	User32.dll
API set	ext-ms-win-ntuser-gui-l1-1-0 (introduced in Windows 8)