The icon, cursor, and bitmap resources define the appearance of elements of the Windows desktop, such as the minimize and maximum buttons, scroll boxes, menu icons, and others. The USER module extracts these resources from the display driver when Windows starts, then uses BitBlt to copy the resources to the screen when drawing windows. Windows provides a wide variety of icon, cursor, and bitmap resources at various resolutions and aspect ratios.
The following table provides a list of required cursor resources. The last four cursors in the list are no longer used by Windows, but must be provided for compatibility with existing Windows applications.
| Resource | Appearance |
| CROSS.CUR | An upright cross used as a selection marker.* |
| IBEAM.CUR | An I-beam shaped cursor used in edit control windows. |
| ICON.CUR | An empty box formerly used when the mouse was in the icon area.* |
| NORMAL.CUR | An upward diagonal arrow used as the default mouse cursor. |
| SIZE.CUR | A box shape formerly used when sizing tiled windows.* |
| SIZENESW.CUR | A two-headed arrow used when sizing windows. Arrows point northeast and southwest. |
| SIZENS.CUR | A two-headed arrow used when sizing windows. Arrows point north and south. |
| SIZEWE.CUR | A two-headed arrow used when sizing windows. Arrows point west and east. |
| SIZENWSE.CUR | A two-headed arrow used when sizing windows. Arrows point northwest and southeast. |
| UP.CUR | An upward arrow.* |
| WAIT.CUR | An hourglass that is used while carrying out lengthy operations. |
* These resources are only for compatibility for versions of Windows prior to 3.0.
The following table provides a list of required icons resources.
| Resource | Appearance |
| BANG.ICO | An exclamation mark used to emphasize the consequences of an operation. |
| HAND.ICO | A stop sign used to indicate an error condition that halts operation. |
| NOTE.ICO | An asterisk used to indicate noncritical situations. |
| QUES.ICO | A question mark used when querying for a reply. |
| SAMPLE.ICO | The default icon used when no other icon to an operation can be found. |
The following table provides a list of required bitmap resources. The first seven bitmaps have two forms (up and down) used to create a 3-D effect when pushing in a button. The last eleven bitmaps are no longer used by Windows, but must be supplied for compatibility with applications that expect them to be available.
| Resource | Appearance |
| COMBO.BMP | An arrow used in combo boxes. |
| DOWN.BMP | Up down-pointing arrow for scroll bars. |
| DOWND.BMP | Down down-pointing arrow for scroll bars. |
| LEFT.BMP | Up left-pointing arrow for scroll bars. |
| LEFTD.BMP | Down left-pointing arrow for scroll bars. |
| MAX.BMP | Up maximize button on the title bar. |
| MAXD.BMP | Down maximize button on the title bar. |
| MIN.BMP | Up minimize button on the title bar. |
| MIND.BMP | Down minimize button on the title bar. |
| MNARROW.BMP | An arrow used in multilevel menus. |
| OBTNCORN.BMP | A circle formerly used to draw round-cornered buttons. |
| OBTSIZE.BMP | A size box used at the intersection of vertical and horizontal scroll bars.* |
| OBUTTON.BMP | A box used for check boxes in dialog boxes. |
| OCHECK.BMP | A check mark used to check menu items. |
| OCLOSE.BMP | The system-menu bitmaps used for Windows 2.x.* |
| ODOWN.BMP | A down-arrow bitmap used for Windows 2.x.* |
| OLEFT.BMP | A left-arrow bitmap used for Windows 2.x.* |
| ORED.BMP | This resource minimizes the bitmap used for Windows 2.x.* |
| OREST.BMP | Restores the bitmap used for Windows 2.x.* |
| ORIGHT.BMP | A right-arrow bitmap used for Windows 2.x.* |
| OSIZE.BMP | A size box formerly used on tiled windows.* |
| OUP.BMP | An up-arrow bitmap used for Windows 2.x.* |
| OZOOM.BMP | Maximizes the bitmap used for Windows 2.x.* |
| RESTORE.BMP | Up restore button on the title bar. |
| RESTORED.BMP | Down restore button on the title bar. |
| RIGHT.BMP | Up right-pointing arrow for scroll bars. |
| RIGHTD.BMP | Down right-pointing arrow for scroll bars. |
| SYSMENU.BMP | A double-wide image that contains system menu shapes for both main windows and multiple document interface (MDI) windows. |
| UP.BMP | Up up-pointing arrow for scroll bars. |
| UPD.BMP | Down up-pointing arrow for scroll bars. |
* These resources are only for compatibility for versions of Windows prior to 3.0.