FIX: Can't Restore Default Foxhead Icon After Set Icon Prop

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b

SYMPTOMS

After setting the Icon property of the _SCREEN object in Visual FoxPro to an icon file or to blank, you can't restore the default foxhead icon. If you set _SCREEN.Icon="", then only a square white box is shown when Visual FoxPro is minimized when running under Windows 3.x or Windows NT. In Windows 95, the icon shown on the task bar button for the minimized Visual FoxPro, is a generic gray button that looks like a program window with a blue title bar. These same incorrect icons show up when switching tasks by pressing ALT+TAB.

WORKAROUND

There are at least two known workarounds for this, each one with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Workaround One

Use the MODIFY WINDOW SCREEN command without any clauses to set the Visual FoxPro icon back to the default foxhead. The main drawback of this method is that other properties of the _SCREEN object are also set back to their defaults. Therefore, _SCREEN.Picture, _SCREEN.Fontname, _SCREEN.Caption, and so on are set back to their defaults. An additional side effect of this is that the Picture and Icon properties of the _SCREEN object will still report the user defined values even though the defaults show up visually (no picture and the foxhead icon). To work around this drawback, you can save the necessary properties of the _SCREEN object in variables, and then restore them after using the MODIFY WINDOW SCREEN command. The following commands can be issued in the Command window to illustrate this:

   _SCREEN.Icon=HOME()+"samples\graphics\icons\flag\ctrcan.ico"
   _SCREEN.Picture=HOME()+"fox.bmp"
   _SCREEN.Fontname="Wingdings"
   _SCREEN.Fontsize=16
   cScrPic=_SCREEN.Picture
   cScrFont=_SCREEN.Fontname
   nScrFontsz=_SCREEN.Fontsize
   * Minimize Visual FoxPro and check the icon. Restore Visual FoxPro.
   MODIFY WINDOW SCREEN
   * Minimize Visual FoxPro and check the icon. Restore Visual FoxPro.
   ? _SCREEN.Picture      && this returns the name of the picture file
   *                         even though the picture isn't displayed
   ? _SCREEN.Icon         && this returns the name of the icon file even
   *                         though the icon is now the default icon
   ? _SCREEN.Fontname     && this should be Arial
   ? _SCREEN.Fontsize     && this should be 10
   * The next three commands restore the specified settings:
   _SCREEN.Picture=cScrPic
   _SCREEN.Fontname=cScrFont
   _SCREEN.Fontsize=nScrFontsz

Workaround Two

Create a foxhead icon file and set the _SCREEN.Icon property to that icon file. You can change the Fox.bmp bitmap file (located in the VFP directory) to an icon file by using the Imagedit program that comes with the Professional Edition of Visual FoxPro. The main drawbacks for this workaround are that the icon file will not have a transparent background and the resolution isn't as good as the default icon built into Visual FoxPro.

Steps to convert the Fox.bmp file to an icon file:

1. Start Imagedit and open the VFP\Fox.bmp file.

2. On the Edit menu in Imagedit, click Copy.

3. On the File menu in Imagedit, click New, and create a new icon file. Choose the "EGA/VGA 16-Color 32x32" option for the icon file.

4. On the Edit menu, click Paste. In the Paste From Clipboard dialog box, choose either option. The "Stretch/shrink clipboard bitmap?" option produces a larger icon but it won't look as good as the "Clip clipboard bitmap?" option. Both will have white backgrounds and this will show when using the icon in Visual FoxPro. The background can be changed to black, but that will also appear when it is used in Visual FoxPro if the Windows desktop is other than black.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem has been fixed in Visual FoxPro 5.0 for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

In FoxPro version 2.x for Windows, the MODIFY WINDOW SCREEN command can be used to set what are now many of the properties of the _SCREEN object. The _SCREEN object is the system memory variable that refers to the Visual FoxPro application window. Some of the _SCREEN properties and the corresponding clauses for the MODIFY WINDOW SCREEN command are:

_SCREEN Property     MODIFY WINDOW Clause

Caption              Title
Picture              Fill File
Icon                 Icon File
FontName             Font

Steps to Reproduce Problem

1. Start a new session of Visual FoxPro. If running Visual FoxPro under Windows 3.x or Windows NT, minimize Visual FoxPro and any other running programs, including Program Manager, and note that Visual FoxPro has the foxhead icon on the desktop. In Windows 95, look on the status bar to see the default foxhead icon. Under all platforms, press ALT+TAB to switch tasks and see the default foxhead icon.

2. In the Visual FoxPro Command window, type:

       _SCREEN.Icon=""
   

3. Repeat step 1. This time notice that the icon is either a square white box under Windows 3.x or Windows NT, or it is a generic gray button that looks like a program window with a blue title bar under Windows 95.

4. In the Visual FoxPro Command window, type the following command to get the default foxhead icon back:

   MODIFY WINDOW SCREEN