Question

If I have the path to a file, is there a way I can get the icon that windows would have displayed for that file in Windows Explorer?

Answer 1

First of all, there are multiple sizes of images, some of which are easier to get than others. If you want the “normal” size one (I believe 32×32) and can use WPF (referencing PresentationCore), this is a great way to do it:

public System.Windows.Media.ImageSource Icon
{
    get
    {
        if (icon == null && System.IO.File.Exists(Command))
        {
            using (System.Drawing.Icon sysicon = System.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(Command))
            {
                // This new call in WPF finally allows us to read/display 32bit Windows file icons!
                icon = System.Windows.Interop.Imaging.CreateBitmapSourceFromHIcon(
                  sysicon.Handle,
                  System.Windows.Int32Rect.Empty,
                  System.Windows.Media.Imaging.BitmapSizeOptions.FromEmptyOptions());
            }
        }

        return icon;
    }
}