To use an icon, your application must get a handle to the icon. The following example shows how to create two different icon handles: one for the standard exclamation icon and one for a custom icon included as a resource in the application's resource-definition file.
HICON hIcon1; // icon handle
HICON hIcon2; // icon handle
// Create a standard question icon.
hIcon1 = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_QUESTION);
// Create a custom icon based on a resource.
hIcon2 = LoadIcon(hinst, MAKEINTRESOURCE(460));
// Create a custom icon at run time.
An application should implement custom icons as resources and should use the LoadIcon or LoadImage function, rather than create the icons at run time. This approach avoids device dependence, simplifies localization, and enables applications to share icon bitmaps. However, the following example uses CreateIcon to create a custom icon at run time, based on bitmap bitmasks; it is included to illustrate how the system interprets icon bitmap bitmasks.
HICON hIcon3; // icon handle
// Yang icon AND bitmask
BYTE ANDmaskIcon[] = {0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, // line 1
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xC3, 0xFF, // line 2
0xFF, 0xFF, 0x00, 0xFF, // line 3
0xFF, 0xFE, 0x00, 0x7F, // line 4
0xFF, 0xFC, 0x00, 0x1F, // line 5
0xFF, 0xF8, 0x00, 0x0F, // line 6
0xFF, 0xF8, 0x00, 0x0F, // line 7
0xFF, 0xF0, 0x00, 0x07, // line 8
0xFF, 0xF0, 0x00, 0x03, // line 9
0xFF, 0xE0, 0x00, 0x03, // line 10
0xFF, 0xE0, 0x00, 0x01, // line 11
0xFF, 0xE0, 0x00, 0x01, // line 12
0xFF, 0xF0, 0x00, 0x01, // line 13
0xFF, 0xF0, 0x00, 0x00, // line 14
0xFF, 0xF8, 0x00, 0x00, // line 15
0xFF, 0xFC, 0x00, 0x00, // line 16
0xFF, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x00, // line 17
0xFF, 0xFF, 0x80, 0x00, // line 18
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xE0, 0x00, // line 19
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xE0, 0x01, // line 20
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xF0, 0x01, // line 21
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xF0, 0x01, // line 22
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xF0, 0x03, // line 23
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xE0, 0x03, // line 24
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xE0, 0x07, // line 25
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xC0, 0x0F, // line 26
0xFF, 0xFF, 0xC0, 0x0F, // line 27
0xFF, 0xFF, 0x80, 0x1F, // line 28
0xFF, 0xFF, 0x00, 0x7F, // line 29
0xFF, 0xFC, 0x00, 0xFF, // line 30
0xFF, 0xF8, 0x03, 0xFF, // line 31
0xFF, 0xFC, 0x3F, 0xFF}; // line 32
// Yang icon XOR bitmask
BYTE XORmaskIcon[] = {0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 1
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 2
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 3
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 4
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 5
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 6
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 7
0x00, 0x00, 0x38, 0x00, // line 8
0x00, 0x00, 0x7C, 0x00, // line 9
0x00, 0x00, 0x7C, 0x00, // line 10
0x00, 0x00, 0x7C, 0x00, // line 11
0x00, 0x00, 0x38, 0x00, // line 12
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 13
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 14
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 15
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 16
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 17
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 18
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 19
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 20
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 21
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 22
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 23
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 24
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 25
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 26
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 27
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 28
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 29
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 30
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, // line 31
0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}; // line 32
hIcon3 = CreateIcon(hinst, // application instance
32, // icon width
32, // icon height
1, // number of XOR planes
1, // number of bits per pixel
ANDmaskIcon, // AND bitmask
XORmaskIcon); // XOR bitmask
To create the icon, CreateIcon applies the following truth table to the AND and XOR bitmasks.
| AND bitmask | XOR bitmask | Display |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | Black |
| 0 | 1 | White |
| 1 | 0 | Screen |
| 1 | 1 | Reverse screen |
Before closing, your application must use DestroyIcon to destroy any icon it created by using CreateIconIndirect. It is not necessary to destroy icons created by other functions.