Is it safe to use Icons from Shell32?

No it's not safe to use them. The icons in Shell32.dll are an implementation detail. You cannot rely on them not changing. The icons in Shell32.dll are for Windows use, not yours.

See this post by a Microsoft blogger on the shell team.

Remember, resources in system DLLs should be treated as implementation details, unless explicitly documented otherwise.

shf301

Posted 2013-07-13T22:11:22.257

Reputation: 7 582

2I would say it's not safe to rely on them if you are writing software against it, but if you are wanting to use a icon stored in it for personal use and manually setting it, it is perfectly "safe" to do it. Just don't expect it to be there when you upgrade to a new version of windows. – Scott Chamberlain – 2013-07-13T22:53:03.053

@ScottChamberlain: On that note, are you even allowed to legally use icons from such Windows DLLs in your own software? – Karan – 2013-07-14T02:01:28.117

1@Karan You are not allowed to copy them *in* to your software (so if a user does not have the dll you provide it for them), but you are allowed to point at files that already exists on the system and use those references at runtime (Imagine the difference between giving you a book and saying "read pg. 23 of this book" and me saying "Go to your library to find this book and read pg. 23") The point of the article linked to in shf's answer is saying "Microsoft does not gaurntee that the resources (icons) that exist in this version of Shell32.dll will exist in the next version of Shell32.dll" – Scott Chamberlain – 2013-07-14T03:09:08.817

@ScottChamberlain: Yes of course, I wasn't debating the fact that it's an implementation detail. Was just curious whether you can even use MS' icons in your own software. What you said does make sense. Dynamically loading them shouldn't be an issue (although TBH I don't know if the legalese somehow covers this possibility as well), but extracting the resources and incorporating into one's own app would of course be a copyright violation for sure. – Karan – 2013-07-14T03:14:59.480

I'm not writing anything into anything, I'm talking about setting them as the icons on my home computer because I think that they look nicer.... – SwL – 2013-07-14T04:45:13.073

1What would be "unsafe" about them? – Scott Chamberlain – 2013-07-13T22:39:41.807

In what way are you using them? For shortcut icons? For programming? For viewing? For exploiting? – Canadian Luke – 2013-07-13T23:32:19.467

Just to set them as my Icons on my home computer... nothing sinister. – SwL – 2013-07-14T05:09:55.497

Is it safe to use Icons from Shell32?

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