WM_GETICON not working (Windows)

Question

If I don\'t use WM_SETICON first to set the icon then WM_GETICON is always returning 0. This is weird. Please help.

This is my code, can copy paste into scratchpad and r

Answer 1

Since you got the WM_GETICON stuff from me (in another answer to another question) let me first say: It has been a while... So I forgot that WM_GETICON will return null when the window has no particular window icon assigned, but instead the icon is taken from the registered window class.

So you should:

1. Check WM_GETICON to see if the window has a specific icon assigned.
2. Check the class by GetClassLongPtr(hwnd, GCLP_HICON /* or GCLP_HICONSM */)
3. If that fails, you can always try to load the main icon from the .exe
4. If that fails, you can always try to load a stock icon.

Here is some C++ code which I use to actually get an icon from a window in my "mintrayr" extension:

  // Get the window icon
  HICON icon = reinterpret_cast(::SendMessageW(hwnd, WM_GETICON, ICON_SMALL, 0));
  if (icon == 0) {
    // Alternative method. Get from the window class
    icon = reinterpret_cast(::GetClassLongPtrW(hwnd, GCLP_HICONSM));
  }
  // Alternative method: get the first icon from the main module (executable image of the process)
  if (icon == 0) {
    icon = ::LoadIcon(GetModuleHandleW(0), MAKEINTRESOURCE(0));
  }
  // Alternative method. Use OS default icon
  if (icon == 0) {
    icon = ::LoadIcon(0, IDI_APPLICATION);
  }