Automatically embed multiple icons in a .NET Executable

Question

I basically have the same issue as this question: Embed multiple icons in WPF EXE

My .NET 2.0 WinForms application currently has this when you click "Change Icon" in explorer:

_{(source: richard-slater.co.uk)}

What I would like to see, and with some hacking about as suggested by the above article I get this:

_{(source: richard-slater.co.uk)}

However the process of getting there all of the version information for the assembly is lost. I need to maintain the Version Information in the assembly as my auto-update process relies on this to identify the installed version of the application.

I also build the application through a continuous integration process so I would prefer not to have any steps that require manual intervention, so is this possible in an automated way?

Answer 1

I've just created a simple tool to do exactly this without having to mess with .res files. It is a tiny utility which you can use as part of your Post-Build event and lets you add all icon files in a particular folder to your assembly. If we assume that you have a icons folder under your main project folder you can add the following post-build event:

C:\path\to\InsertIcons.exe $(TargetPath) $(ProjectDir)icons

A further description and a download can be found at http://einaregilsson.com/add-multiple-icons-to-a-dotnet-application/

Answer 2

The article mentioned by ChrisF will also wipe out your assembly version information. Once you follow that guide you might want to try using the post-build method described here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cheller/archive/2006/08/24/718757.aspx to embed the manifest.

EDIT:

It is "Method #2 - The "Generic" Approach (using mt.exe)"