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In previous versions of Windows when I right click on a shortcut and dived in to change the icon the initial list populated with a whole catalog of default icons.

On Windows 7 (RTM) here is what I see:

Icons in Windows 7

I found those icons useful when making shortcuts to web applications.

Any idea where I can find them?! I had a little "Browse..." but couldn't find much.

Edit:

You've all so far provided excellent answers, thanks - unfortunately I can't pick you all as the right one! :( Three of the files you mentioned have had equally useful sets of DLLs:

%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll
%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll
%SystemRoot%\system32\DDORes.dll
%SystemRoot%\System32\moricons.dll (MS DOS Icons)
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note that it's illegal to share these icons – jberger May 2 '12 at 16:07

5 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted

In the box that says “Look for icons in this file:”, type or browse to: %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll

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The can be all over the place. For example, browse to this location ...

C:\Windows\system32\imageres.dll

But, they can be in any DLL, EXE or ICO file. You can also download cool ones.

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1  
ImageRex.dll started with Vista, and provides the new, high-resolution, 256x256 icons. Shell32.dll maintains icons that have been around for over a decade (including the MS-DOS icon :) ) – Ian Boyd Mar 2 '10 at 19:22

Additionally, lots of device icons are stored here:

%SystemRoot%\System32\DDORes.dll

and high res stuff from devices and printers (potentially) here:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Device Metadata\dmrccache\
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There are 113 additional icons in:

%SystemRoot%\System32\moricons.dll
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There's more than 1,000 icons in total in these files:

C:\Windows\System32\Shell32.Dll

C:\Windows\Explorer.Exe

C:\Windows\System32\AccessibilityCpl.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\Ddores.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\GameUx.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll

C:\Windows\System32\MorIcons.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\mmcndmgr.dll

C:\Windows\System32\mmRes.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\NetCenter.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\netshell.dll

C:\Windows\System32\networkexplorer.dll

C:\Windows\System32\PifMgr.dll

C:\Windows\System32\PniDui.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\SensorsCpl.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\SetupApi.Dll

C:\Windows\System32\wmploc.DLL

C:\Windows\System32\wpdshext.dll

C:\Windows\System32\DDORes.dll

C:\Windows\System32\compstui.dll

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