How can I get the filetype icon that Windows Explorer shows?

Question

first question here. I'm developing a program in C# (.NET 3.5) that displays files in a listview. I'd like to have the "large icon" view display the icon that Windows Explorer uses for that filetype, otherwise I'll have to use some existing code like this:

        private int getFileTypeIconIndex(string fileName)
    {
        string fileLocation = Application.StartupPath + "\\Quarantine\\" + fileName;
        FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(fileLocation);
        switch (fi.Extension)
        {
            case ".pdf":
                return 1;
            case ".doc": case ".docx": case ".docm": case ".dotx":case ".dotm": case ".dot":case ".wpd": case ".wps":
                return 2;
            default:
                return 0;
        }

    }

The above code returns an integer that is used to select an icon from an imagelist that I populated with some common icons. It works fine but I'd need to add every extension under the sun! Is there a better way? Thanks!

Answer 1

You might find the use of Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon a much simpler (an managed) approach than using SHGetFileInfo. But watch out: two files with the same extension may have different icons.