Using Intel® Visual Fortran to Create and Build Windows*-Based Applications

ID 757211
Date 7/23/2021
Public
Document Table of Contents

Using Custom Icons

The QuickWin run-time library provides default icons that appear when the user minimizes the application's frame window or its child windows. You can add custom-made icons to your executable files, and Windows will display them instead of the default icons.

To add a custom child window icon to your QuickWin program:

  1. From the File >menu, select Add New Item...

  2. Select Resource and enter a new name. Click Open.

  3. From the Edit menu, select Add Resource...

    From the list of possible resources, select Icon. Click New. The screen becomes an icon drawing tool.

  4. Draw the icon. (For more information about using the Graphics Editor in the integrated development environment, see the Visual C++ User's Guide.)

    -- or --

    If your icon already exists (for example, as a bitmap) and you want to import it, not draw it, select Resource from the Insert menu, then select Import from the buttons in the Resource dialog. You will be prompted for the file containing your icon.

  5. Display the Icon Properties dialog box by double-clicking in the icon editor area outside the icon's grid or pressing ALT+ENTER.

    In the ID field on the General tab of Icon Properties dialog box, replace the default icon name with either "frameicon" or "childicon." The frame window's icon must have the name "frameicon," and the child window's icon must have the name "childicon." These names must be entered with quotation marks in order to be interpreted as strings.

    Your icon will be saved in a file with the extension .ICO.

  6. Create an .RC file to hold your icons. Select File>Save As. You will be prompted for the name of the file that will contain your icons. It must end with the extension .RC; for example, myicons.rc. Using this method, the icons and their string values will be automatically saved in the .RC file. (Alternatively, you can create an .RC file with any editor and add the icon names and their string values by hand.)

  7. Add the file to the project that contains your QuickWin application. Select Build and the .RC file will be built into the application's executable.

When you run your application, the icon you created will take the place of the default child or frame icon. Your custom icon appears in the upper-left corner of the window frame. When you minimize the window, the icon appears on the left of the minimized window bar.