How To Extract 16 Bit Icons On Windows XP & 7.

This also works on Windows 8,Windows 8.1,Windows 10, as well as Windows Vista.

If you have ever installed any 16 bit software or games from Windows 3.1 you will know the big let down is that the icons don't show up. So you have to use another icon from the Shell32.dll folder on Windows.





In Windows ME and earlier versions of Windows this is not a problem as those version were 9x based and even the early NT versions such as Windows NT had support for 16 bit apps.

But  this was removed by Microsoft in Windows XP and later versions but there is still a way to get back the original 16 bit icons.

To do this you need to download and install a software called BeCyicon Grabber which can extract any icon including 16 bit ones.

There are of course other software that can do this but I find BeCyicon Grabber the easiest one to use and it works for me.

You can extract the icons then save in a folder on your PC. Then point to it when Windows prompts you to choose an icon.

Here is my Windows 7 and as you can see I have all of the 16 bit icons for my 16 bit software on my desktop. But it can also extract 32 bit icons and is very handy to have. It works on all versions of Windows including Windows 8 and Windows 10.

The above picture is my desktop on Windows 7. All of the software here is bit with the REAL 16 bit icons!

Here is Golf a 16 bit game. As you can see Windows cannot display the icon.

Be Cyicon Grabber finds the icon and saves it. I now have the icon on my desktop.

These above are all 16 bit icons that have been extracted and can be saved anywhere on your computer in a folder.

Please note that 16 bit software will only work on 32 bit Windows not 64 bit.


BeCyicon Grabber can be downloaded from here:
Icon Grabber Download.