How can I get MessageBox icons in Windows 8.1

Question

I want to get the MessageBoxIcons, that get displayed when the user is presented with a MessageBox. Earlier I used SystemIcons for that purpose, but now it seems that it returns icons different than the ones on the MessageBox.

This leads to the conclusion that in Windows 8.1 SystemIcons and MessageBoxIcons are different. I know that icons are taken using WinApi MessageBox, but I can't seem to get the icons themselves in any way.

I would like to ask for a way of retrieving those icons.

Answer 1

Update:

You should use the SHGetStockIconInfo function.

To do that in C# you will have to define a few enums and structs (consult this excellent page for more information):

public enum SHSTOCKICONID : uint
{
    //...
    SIID_INFO = 79,
    //...
}

[Flags]
public enum SHGSI : uint
{
    SHGSI_ICONLOCATION = 0,
    SHGSI_ICON = 0x000000100,
    SHGSI_SYSICONINDEX = 0x000004000,
    SHGSI_LINKOVERLAY = 0x000008000,
    SHGSI_SELECTED = 0x000010000,
    SHGSI_LARGEICON = 0x000000000,
    SHGSI_SMALLICON = 0x000000001,
    SHGSI_SHELLICONSIZE = 0x000000004
}

[StructLayoutAttribute(LayoutKind.Sequential, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
public struct SHSTOCKICONINFO
{
    public UInt32 cbSize;
    public IntPtr hIcon;
    public Int32 iSysIconIndex;
    public Int32 iIcon;
    [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValTStr, SizeConst = 260/*MAX_PATH*/)]
    public string szPath;
}

[DllImport("Shell32.dll", SetLastError = false)]
public static extern Int32 SHGetStockIconInfo(SHSTOCKICONID siid, SHGSI uFlags, ref SHSTOCKICONINFO psii);

After that you can easily get the required icon:

 SHSTOCKICONINFO sii = new SHSTOCKICONINFO();
 sii.cbSize = (UInt32)Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(SHSTOCKICONINFO));

 Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(SHGetStockIconInfo(SHSTOCKICONID.SIID_INFO,
         SHGSI.SHGSI_ICON ,
         ref sii));
 pictureBox1.Image = Icon.FromHandle(sii.hIcon).ToBitmap();

This is how the result will look like:

Please note:

If this function returns an icon handle in the hIcon member of the SHSTOCKICONINFO structure pointed to by psii, you are responsible for freeing the icon with DestroyIcon when you no longer need it.

---

i will not delete my original answer, as - I think - it contains useful information regarding this issue, and another way (or workaround) of retrieving this icon.

Original answer:

Quite interestingly the icons present in the SystemIcons differ from the ones displayed on the MessageBoxes in the case of Asterisk, Information and Question. The icons on the dialog look much flatter.

In all other cases they look exactly the same, e.g.: in case of Error:

When you try to get the icon using the SystemIcons you get the one on the left in the above images.

// get icon from SystemIcons
pictureBox1.Image = SystemIcons.Asterisk.ToBitmap();

If you try a little bit harder, using the LoadIcon method from user32.dll, you still get the same icon (as it can be seen in center of the above images).

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr LoadIcon(IntPtr hInstance, IntPtr lpIconName);

...

public enum SystemIconIds
{
    ...
    IDI_ASTERISK = 32516,
    ...
}

...

// load icon by ID
IntPtr iconHandle = LoadIcon(IntPtr.Zero, new IntPtr((int)SystemIconIds.IDI_ASTERISK));
pictureBox2.Image = Icon.FromHandle(iconHandle).ToBitmap();

But when you show a MessagBox you get a different one (as seen in the MessageBox on the images). One has no other choice, but to get that very icon from the MessageBox.

For that we will need a few more DllImports:

// To be able to find the dialog window
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

// To be able to get the icon window handle
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr GetDlgItem(IntPtr hDlg, int nIDDlgItem);

// To be able to get a handle to the actual icon
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

The idea is the following: First we display a MessageBox, after that (while it is still displayed) we find it's handle, using that handle we will get another handle, now to the static control which is containing the icon. In the end we will send a message to that control (an STM_GETICON message), which will return with a handle to the icon itself. Using that handle we can create an Icon, which we can use anywhere in our application.

In code:

// show a `MessageBox`
MessageBox.Show("test", "test caption", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Asterisk);

...

var hwnd = FindWindow(null, "test caption");
if (hwnd != IntPtr.Zero)
{
    // we got the messagebox, get the icon from it
    IntPtr hIconWnd = GetDlgItem(hwnd, 20);
    if (hIconWnd != IntPtr.Zero)
    {
        var iconHandle = SendMessage(hIconWnd, 369/*STM_GETICON*/, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);

        pictureBox3.Image = Icon.FromHandle(iconHandle).ToBitmap();
    }
}

After the code runs the PictureBox called pictureBox3 will display the same image as the MessageBox (as it can be seen on the right on the image).

I really hope this helps.

---

For reference here is all the code (it's a WinForms app, the Form has three PicturBoxes and one Timer, their names can be deducted from the code...):

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern IntPtr LoadIcon(IntPtr hInstance, IntPtr lpIconName);

        [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern IntPtr GetDlgItem(IntPtr hDlg, int nIDDlgItem);

        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

        public enum SystemIconIds
        {
            IDI_APPLICATION = 32512,
            IDI_HAND = 32513,
            IDI_QUESTION = 32514,
            IDI_EXCLAMATION = 32515,
            IDI_ASTERISK = 32516,
            IDI_WINLOGO = 32517,
            IDI_WARNING = IDI_EXCLAMATION,
            IDI_ERROR = IDI_HAND,
            IDI_INFORMATION = IDI_ASTERISK,
        }

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            // Information, Question and Asterix differ from the icons displayed on MessageBox

            // get icon from SystemIcons
            pictureBox1.Image = SystemIcons.Asterisk.ToBitmap();
            // load icon by ID
            IntPtr iconHandle = LoadIcon(IntPtr.Zero, new IntPtr((int)SystemIconIds.IDI_ASTERISK));
            pictureBox2.Image = Icon.FromHandle(iconHandle).ToBitmap();
        }

        private void pictureBox1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("test", "test caption", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Asterisk);
        }


        private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            var hwnd = FindWindow(null, "test caption");
            if (hwnd != IntPtr.Zero)
            {
                // we got the messagebox, get the icon from it
                IntPtr hIconWnd = GetDlgItem(hwnd, 20);
                if (hIconWnd != IntPtr.Zero)
                {
                    var iconHandle = SendMessage(hIconWnd, 369/*STM_GETICON*/, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);
                    pictureBox3.Image = Icon.FromHandle(iconHandle).ToBitmap();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}