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Thus, a single icon file could store images of any size from 1×1 pixel up to 256×256 pixels (including non-square sizes) with 2 (rarely used),16, 256, 65535, or 16.7 million colors; but the shell could not display very large sized icons.
An ICO file is an image format Microsoft developed to store Windows programs icons. An ICO file is flexible. It can contain multiple images at various sizes and color-depth. The standard sizes are 16×16, 32×32, 48×48, and 256×256.
The size most commonly used size on this list is '24 x 24′ as it is a standard size for menus within Windows 7 and 3rd-party software. When creating ICO files specifically for menus, rather than app icons, 16 x 16, 24 x 24 & 32 x 32 are the three most common sizes used.
Short answer: 16 x 16 pixels.
Long answer:
.ico files can actually contain multiple images, at multiple colour depths - you can provide 16x16, 32x32, 48x48 and 64x64 in a single file and the OS will pick the best one to show.
Of course to keep the file size low you don't want to put too many in there, but if you think people might be saving a link on their desktop (say it's a web application) then it's probably a good move.
See Microsoft's recommendations.
Basically, 16x16, 32x32, 48x48, and 256x256 for application icons. I guess the window icon is a toolbar icon so 16x16, 24x24 and 32x32.
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