Using Built-In Icons

Windows provides several built-in icons. You can use any of these icons in your applications. Windows uses several built-in icons in message boxes to indicate notes, cautions, warnings, and errors.

To use a built-in icon, you must first load it. To do this, you retrieve a handle to it by using the LoadIcon function. The first argument to the function must be NULL, indicating that you are requesting a built-in icon. The second argument identifies the icon you want. For example, the following statement loads the built-in “exclamation” icon:

hHandIcon = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_EXCLAMATION);

After loading a built-in icon, your application can use it. For example, the application could specify the icon as the class icon for a particular window class. Or you could include the icon in a message box. For more information, see “Specifying a Class Icon” and “Displaying Your Own Icons”.