>>>>>>>>>>>>Hi All, I've added several icons as embedded resources into my exe using the resource editor, however if I right click a shortcut to my.exe and select change icon / browse to my.exe - only the icon I set in the icon and manifest tab of the projects' properties tab is shown ? any ideas ?
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/embedmultipleiconsdotnet.aspx
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Thanks Viv, I actually read that article ( obviously not properly ! ) and couldn't get it to work - I was looking in the wrong place for Properties ! thanks again it works perfectly
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Sorry. Just noticed that the link was based on VS2005 but sounds like you found the right place to add the resource file to the app...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Hi Viv, having successfuly created Resource.res - do you know how to extract an icon / cursor from one ? I've googled away but can't find much of use
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>In VS just open the .res file (using File/Open)
>>>>>>>Locate the icon that you want to extract.
>>>>>>>Right Click , choose Export.....
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Hi Viv, sorry I didn't word my question very well - what I meant to ask was - now that I've embedded some icons / cursors / images etc... - how can I access them at runtime - I basically want to give certain groups of users different icons / background images etc... at runtime
>>>>>
>>>>>I don't think there's a simple way of retrieving from the Win32 resource file but if you add the icons to the embedded resources you could just use:

this.Icon = (Icon)WindowsFormsApplication1.Properties.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject("RESOURCENAME");

(adjust namespace to suit)
>>>>
>>>>That's ok for icons but I don't think you can add cursors as embedded resources - here's what I have so far ( it ain't pretty but it works )
>>>>

>>>>
>>>>[DllImport("user32.dll")]
>>>>public static extern IntPtr LoadCursor(IntPtr hInstance, int lpCursorName);
>>>>
>>>>this.Cursor = new Cursor(LoadCursor(Marshal.GetHINSTANCE(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetModules()[0]),119));
>>>>
>>>>

>>>>
>>>>where 119 is my resource id ( just being silly putting it all in one statement )
>>>
>>>Looks good (and is probably your best bet) but, for the record, you can use the embedded resource option. In the designer just choose Add Resource/Add Existing File... and select the Cursor file. You can then retrieve it as a byte[] so:

byte[] b = (byte[]) WindowsFormsApplication1.Properties.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject("MyCursor");
>>>Cursor c = new Cursor(new MemoryStream(b));

>>
>>Thanks again, I can't find a way of accessing MyNameSpace.Properties.Resources.ResourceManager.GetObject("MyCursor"); is it a VS2010 thing ? I only get as far as MyNameSpace.Properties.Resources and intellisense stops ?
>
>I think it's the same in both. But I set the Access Modifier to 'Public' in the designer - I think the default is Internal. If you make it public Intellisense should work. Actually, since MyCursor is then public you could just use:

Cursor c = new Cursor(new MemoryStream(WindowsFormsApplication1.Properties.Resources.MyCursor));

Of course you could change the return type of MyCursor in the Resources.Designer.cs and create the cursor there leaving just:

this.Cursor= WindowsFormsApplication1.Properties.Resources.MyCursor;

Good stuff thanks again - good thread