# Where can I find this icon?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 14, 2002, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418 "2002-09-14T11:45:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/1 "2002-09-14T11:45:03Z")

</div>

So my friend installed some crap on my laptop and it grabbed the file association for all movie file types. I easy restored the association to Windows media player but I cannot find the default icons windows was using before. The icon looks like a sheet of paper with a corner clipped and a video camera in front. the old windows MPLAYER.exe has one like that in grey but windows was using the same one with different colors and I cannot find them for the life of me.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/2 "2002-09-14T11:51:44Z")

</div>

I don’t know what version of Windows you’re using, but certainly most of the default icons are in:

**C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\shell32.dll**

The icon you want doesn’t seem to be there in Windows XP, but may be in other versions.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/3 "2002-09-14T13:24:10Z")

</div>

**Crusoe** , I am using WIN98SE and I checked shell32.dll but it is not there. I wish I could find them but I guess in the worst of cases I can take the grey one and make myself the icons with other colors. Anyone else have any idea where they may be hiding?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/4 "2002-09-14T13:31:05Z")

</div>

Hmm. There are more in **C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\migicons.exe** but I have a sneaking suspicion from the name that these are migrated Windows 98 icons.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/5 "2002-09-14T14:33:41Z")

</div>

I do not have that file so the icons must be in another file as I did havethem and they must still be on the computer. That’ll teach me to allow others to get within five feet of my computer.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/6 "2002-09-14T15:10:34Z")

</div>

I have Windows 98SE and if I go to Display Poperties and click on the effects tab the “Change Icon…” button brings up several icons from C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\COOL.DLL. It looks like your icon is there but it’s not very colorful (just a gray camera on a white sheet of paper with a bit of yellow in front of the camera lens.

Is that what you’re looking for?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/7 "2002-09-14T17:52:57Z")

</div>

rsa, yes that is the same icon that I mentioned appears in mplayer.exe but when you do a fresh install of WIN98SE MPG, AVI, QT, are assigned similar icons but each of a different color and now I cannot find where they are. The thing is that if I go to a computer which still has those icons and do the change icon thing, even though it shows the icon it does not give you the path to it ☹

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Helm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Helm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helm)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/8 "2002-09-16T03:15:57Z")

</div>

This is probably more work than you want, but it’s proved fun for me so I’ll pass it on.

A free demo version of **Microangelo** is available from **[http://impactsoft.com/](http://impactsoft.com/)**

There’s a Librarian function that will pull icons out of any program or dll file.

Plus, you can make your own icons or cut and paste them from screen images such as web pages.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/9 "2002-09-16T07:44:20Z")

</div>

The icon that you seek is embedded in mplayer.exe (you will probably find this in c:\windows

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/10 "2002-09-16T07:46:21Z")

</div>

Oops; I didn’t notice that you already mentioned that, sorry. :o

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/11 "2002-09-16T07:54:48Z")

</div>

I believe **Crusoe** is talking about **c:\windows\moricons.dll** , legacy icons from the Windows 3.1 era.

Anyway, I think you’re looking for the icons embedded in **c:\windows\system\quartz.dll**. I can’t take all the credit, I downloaded _Icon Scanner_ from [www.softspice.com](http://www.softspice.com) and scanned my Win98SE system. Cool little program. I was surprised to find icons in some control panel .CPL files.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2002, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/12 "2002-09-16T08:20:26Z")

</div>

No, it was called **migicons** on my XP machine. Interesting.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/13 "2002-09-20T01:07:34Z")

</div>

Horseflesh, thanks for that link. The icons in quartz.dll come very close but are not exactly alike. In the originals the camera is a bit larger but since I cannot find those in my system any more it may mean the file was replaced with a different one with slightly different icons. I will have to scan my other system and find the Icons there.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2002, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-this-icon/128418/14 "2002-09-20T03:05:10Z")

</div>

No problem, **sailor**. I had cause to uninstall WiMP 7.1 this past weekend and noticed that when I associated Media Player 6.4 with AVI and MPG that those icons went back to the colorful camera ones in quartz.dll. To associate run **mplayer2.exe** and choose View/Options. Click on the Formats tab and check Video File and Movie File (MPEG) to get those icons back in order. You may have to uncheck them and recheck them if they’re already associated. For the life of me I can’t figure out how to get icons from a .dll file associated with file types. I’ve poured through the registry and couldn’t find any way to do it.
