1.Yes, icons, AVIs and bitmaps are stored as resources in DLLs (shell32.dll is one).
2.I don't know if you will violate the copyright if you extract these bitmaps/icons and use these in applications (but make sense, you buy Windows, not windows icons)
3.You can extract/modify resources, Resource Hacker is a freeware that can do this.

Or you can search the Internet and download icon/bitmap collections for use with your application.

Dorin

>Hi All,
>
>Does Microsoft stores there icons & buttons in a .DLL file and packaged with windows xp, and can we use these icons in our application.
>
>If yes, I would like to know the way please.
>
>Thanks for the help