[Feature request] - Higher quality icon(s) in PhotoDemon.exe

[hi5]

Is this feature request related to a problem?

Not a problem, more a visual nicety

Describe the best way to implement this.

I use an Alt-Tab replacement and it shows the icons of the Applications (next to the window).
As you can see in the image below, the quality of the Photodemon.exe is quite poorly compared to other programs - not that fact that is black & white is the issue, but just low quality in my opinion. I think it is the 16x16 icon blown up to 32x32 by the looks of it.

[tannerhelland]

Hello @hi5 . Thank you for filing this bug report.

Attached is the icon that ships inside PhotoDemon.exe. As you can see, it includes 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, and 256x256 icons. These icon sizes are used correctly throughout Windows (AFAIK), so I'm not sure why your Alt-Tab replacement is selecting a low-quality version of the program icon.

Can you let me know what version of Windows you are using? I will investigate that version specifically to see if it needs a workaround to enable higher-quality icons in Alt+Tab scenarios. Thank you.

PhotoDemon_Icon.zip

[Kroc]

I recall having similar issues with high-resolution icons in Windows and I think it may have something to do with the order the icons are encoded in the executable, and/or which colour-depth comes first

[hi5]

It happens on Win10 and Win11, and of course it is more the fault of my Alt+Tab alternative[1] by not selecting a higher quality version which is indeed available - the taskbar icon does look good but that is the 32x32 I think.

I've used resourcehacker and an icon editor to change the 16x16 icon and replace the icons in the PD exe and it does indeed select the 16x16 for the alt-tab.

I've tried changing the order in the ICO file you provided above and then replace all icons but via resourcehacker but the order of the icons doesn't matter, it always chooses the 16x16 for the alt-tab. But PD is the only app where this happens for me (that doesn't mean there aren't any other programs)

When I remove the 16x16 from the ico file and replace icons, it does use another icon, but that also doesn't look good.

I suspect Kroc is correct, but with my limited testing I don't think I can provide a fix. I wouldn't spend much time on it if you can't replicate it - just thought I'd report it as it is an "odd one out"

[1] freemium app, free to try if you want https://www.ntwind.com/software/alttabter.html