win-icon-extractor

Extract file icons on Windows — pure Rust, no C dependency.

• Raw RGBA pixels from any file (exe, dll, ico, or shell fallback)
• Extension icons — get associated icon by file extension, no file needed
• System stock icons — folder, drive, recycle bin, shield, etc.
• Icon enumeration — query how many icons a PE file contains
• WebP / PNG encoding with configurable options
• Base64 encoding & decoding — extract as Base64 Data URL, and decode back with format auto-detection
• Disk + memory cache with mtime-based staleness detection
• Bulk parallel extraction via rayon

Quick Start

use win_icon_extractor::*;

// Raw RGBA pixels from a file
let icon = extract_icon(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe").unwrap();
println!("{}x{}, {} bytes", icon.width, icon.height, icon.rgba.len());

// By index or size
let icon = extract_icon_at(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe", 1).unwrap();
let icon = extract_icon_with_size(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe", 256).unwrap();

// Icon count in a PE file
let count = icon_count(r"C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll"); // 335

Extension Icons

Get the associated icon for any file extension — the file does not need to exist:

let icon = extract_icon_for_extension(".pdf").unwrap();
let icon = extract_icon_for_extension(".docx").unwrap();

System Stock Icons

Extract Windows system-defined icons:

use win_icon_extractor::StockIcon;

let icon = extract_stock_icon(StockIcon::Folder).unwrap();
let icon = extract_stock_icon(StockIcon::DriveFixed).unwrap();
let icon = extract_stock_icon(StockIcon::Recycler).unwrap();
let icon = extract_stock_icon(StockIcon::Shield).unwrap();

// Custom size
let icon = extract_stock_icon_sized(StockIcon::Folder, 48).unwrap();

Available stock icons: Folder, FolderOpen, DriveFixed, DriveRemovable, DriveNet, DriveCd, DriveDvd, Recycler, RecyclerFull, Shield, Warning, Error, Info, Internet, Server, Printer, Users, ZipFile, Settings, and more.

Encoding

// WebP (feature = "webp")
let webp = extract_icon_webp(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe").unwrap();
std::fs::write("icon.webp", &webp).unwrap();

// PNG (feature = "png")
let png = extract_icon_png(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe").unwrap();
std::fs::write("icon.png", &png).unwrap();

// Encode raw RGBA data
let webp = encode_webp(&icon.rgba, icon.width, icon.height).unwrap();
let png = encode_png(&icon.rgba, icon.width, icon.height).unwrap();

Custom Encoding Options

use win_icon_extractor::*;

// WebP: custom quality, method, lossless mode
let opts = WebPOptions {
    quality: 90.0,          // 0.0–100.0 (default: 75.0)
    method: 6,              // 0=fast, 6=best (default: 5)
    lossless: true,         // lossless encoding (default: false)
    alpha_quality: 100,     // 0–100 (default: 100)
    exact: true,            // preserve RGB under transparent areas (default: false)
    ..Default::default()
};
let webp = encode_webp_with(&icon.rgba, icon.width, icon.height, &opts).unwrap();

// WebP best quality preset (lossless, max effort)
let webp = encode_webp_with(&icon.rgba, icon.width, icon.height, &WebPOptions::best_quality()).unwrap();

// PNG: custom filter and compression level
let opts = PngOptions {
    filter: PngFilter::None, // None (default, best for icons) or Sub
    compression_level: 10,   // 0–10 (default: 6)
};
let png = encode_png_with(&icon.rgba, icon.width, icon.height, &opts).unwrap();

// PNG best quality preset (max compression, None filter)
let png = encode_png_with(&icon.rgba, icon.width, icon.height, &PngOptions::best_quality()).unwrap();

Caching

use win_icon_extractor::{IconCache, ImageFormat};

let cache = IconCache::with_app_name("my-app").unwrap();
let path = cache.extract_to_file(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe").unwrap();

// Use PNG format instead of WebP
let mut cache = IconCache::with_app_name("my-app").unwrap();
cache.set_format(ImageFormat::Png);

// Custom encoding options on cache
cache.set_webp_options(WebPOptions::best_quality());
cache.set_png_options(PngOptions::best_quality());

// Bulk parallel extraction (returns Result per path)
let paths = &[r"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe", r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe"];
let results = cache.extract_to_file_bulk(paths);
for (path, result) in &results {
    match result {
        Ok(cached) => println!("{path} → {}", cached.display()),
        Err(e) => eprintln!("{path}: {e}"),
    }
}

// Maintenance
let stats = cache.stats().unwrap();
cache.cleanup(30).unwrap(); // remove files older than 30 days

Base64 Support

You can extract icons directly into Base64 encoded strings (useful for web display as Data URLs) or decode them back into binary image files:

use win_icon_extractor::*;

// Extract directly to WebP/PNG Base64 (Data URL ready)
let webp_base64 = extract_icon_webp_base64(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe").unwrap();
let png_base64 = extract_icon_png_base64(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe").unwrap();

// Standard Base64 encode
let base64_str = encode_base64(&raw_image_bytes);

// Decode back with adaptive format detection (supports pure Base64 or Data URLs)
let data_url = format!("data:image/webp;base64,{}", webp_base64);
let (decoded_bytes, format) = decode_image_base64(&data_url).unwrap();
assert_eq!(format, "webp");

Features

# All defaults (webp + cache + bulk)

win-icon-extractor = "0.1"



# Minimal — raw extraction only

win-icon-extractor = { version = "0.1", default-features = false }



# PNG instead of WebP

win-icon-extractor = { version = "0.1", default-features = false, features = ["png", "cache"] }

Performance

Benchmarked on Windows 11, release mode:

License

AGPL-3.0