docs-desktop/dotnet-desktop-guide/framework/winforms/advanced/how-to-extract-the-icon-associated-with-a-file-in-windows-forms.md

title, ms.date, dev_langs, helpviewer_keywords, ms.assetid

title	ms.date	dev_langs	helpviewer_keywords	ms.assetid
How to: Extract the Icon Associated with a File	03/30/2017	csharp vb	displaying a file name and its file type icon in a ListView control [Windows Forms] file name extension icons [Windows Forms], displaying in a ListView extracting icons associated with a file type [Windows Forms]	88e2ad8b-c34f-415a-84f2-dad756b5c928

How to: Extract the Icon Associated with a File in Windows Forms

Many files have embedded icons that provide a visual representation of the associated file type. For example, Microsoft Word documents contain an icon that identifies them as Word documents. When displaying files in a list control or table control, you may want to display the icon representing the file type next to each file name. You can do this easily by using the xref:System.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon%2A method.

Example

The following code example demonstrates how to extract the icon associated with a file and display the file name and its associated icon in a xref:System.Windows.Forms.ListView control.

[!code-csharpSystem.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIconEx#1] [!code-vbSystem.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIconEx#1]

Compiling the Code

To compile the example:

• Paste the preceding code into a Windows Form, and call the ExtractAssociatedIconExample method from the form's constructor or xref:System.Windows.Forms.Form.Load event-handling method.

  You will need to make sure that your form imports the xref:System.IO namespace.

See also

• Images, Bitmaps, and Metafiles
• ListView Control