How to easily extract icon from executable files? Follow these very simple steps for quick results.

Extracting icons from executable files (.exe, .dll on Windows; .app bundles on macOS; ELF binaries on Linux) can be achieved through various methods depending on the operating system.

Windows

On Windows, icons are embedded as resources within PE (Portable Executable) files like .exe or .dll files.

• Third-Party Tools: This is often the most straightforward approach.
  • Resource Hacker: A popular freeware utility to view, modify, rename, add, delete, and extract resources. Navigate to the Icon or Icon Group section to save icons.
  • BeCyIconGrabber: A lightweight tool specifically designed to scan files and folders for icons and cursors, allowing batch extraction in various formats (ICO, PNG, BMP) and sizes.
  • IcoFX: While primarily an icon editor, it can open executable files and extract icons for editing or saving.
• Programmatic Extraction: Developers can use Windows API functions like ExtractIconEx (from ) to retrieve icon handles or save them to files. This requires programming knowledge (e.g., C++, C#).

macOS

Applications on macOS are typically .app bundles, which are essentially folders. The primary application icon is usually a .icns file.

• Finder "Get Info":
  1. Select the application in Finder.
  2. Press Command + I (or File > Get Info).
  3. In the Get Info window, click on the small icon preview at the top left.
  4. Press Command + C to copy it.
  5. Open *, press Command + N (File > New from Clipboard).
  6. You can then export the icon from Preview in various formats (e.g., PNG).
• Direct Access:
  1. Right-click the .app file and select "Show Package Contents."
  2. Navigate to the Contents/Resources/ folder.
  3. Look for a file with a .icns extension (e.g., ). This file contains multiple sizes of the icon. You can copy this file directly. Specialized tools or Preview can then be used to extract specific sizes from the .icns file.
• Command Line (sips): The Scriptable Image Processing System (sips) can convert .icns files to other formats. For example, to convert to PNG:

  sips -s format png /path/to/*/Contents/Resources/* --out /path/to/*

  You might need to specify a pixel height/width with --resampleHeight or --resampleWidth to extract a specific size before converting.

Linux

For Windows executables running under Wine or for native Linux ELF binaries, methods vary.

• Using icoutils (for Windows executables): The icoutils package provides tools like wrestool and icotool.
  • wrestool: Can extract resources from Windows PE files.

    Example: To list resources: wrestool -l your_*

    To extract an icon group (e.g., named "MAINICON" or by numerical index from the list): wrestool -x -t group_icon --name=MAINICON -o * your_* or wrestool -x -t 14 --raw -o * your_* (where 14 is the RT_GROUP_ICON resource type).

    

  • icotool: Can then be used to list sizes within the extracted .ico file or convert them to PNGs.

    Example: To list sizes: icotool -l *

    To extract a specific icon from the .ico file (e.g., the first one at index 0) to PNG: icotool -x -i 0 -o * *

• Native Linux Applications: Icons for native Linux applications are typically .png or .svg files conforming to the * icon theme specification. They are usually found in /usr/share/icons/ or ~/.local/share/icons/, often within theme-specific subdirectories (e.g., hicolor) and size-specific folders (e.g., 48x48/apps). The .desktop file for the application (found in /usr/share/applications/ or ~/.local/share/applications/) will specify the icon name (e.g., Icon=appname). You can then locate this icon file based on the name and standard icon paths.
• Desktop Environment Tools: Some desktop environments and file managers may allow you to right-click an application's shortcut or menu entry and save its icon or view its properties to find the icon path.