Icons are added as icon_resources

setup(
    windows = [
        {
            "script": "with_gui.py",
            "icon_resources": [(1, "myicon.ico")]
        }
    ],
)

The same practice works as well for console and windows scripts. The resource number does not seem to matter. Windows just takes the first existing icon.

/!\ if somebody knows how to add small and large icons, speak up...

Hm, doesn't the .ico file contain them?

does the resource number refers to the icon's index in the .ico file (if containing > 1 icons) ?

-- dody wijaya

How to add small and large icons

You must create ico file with two icons in one. Your icon file must contain small ico (size: 16*16 pixels) and large ico (size: 32*32 pixels). For WindowsXP you probably may create a big ico (48*48) - but it's only for XP. Almost all popular icon editors can create complex icon with small and large part in one. For instance, LiquidIcon is a freeware icon editor that lets you combine multiple ico files of different sizes and bit-depths into a single ico file. Also available is png2ico, a GPL'ed command line-only .ico creator capable of generating icons with multiple sizes, bit depths, and transparency settings.

Important Note For Adding Multiple Icons On Systems Where This Method Is Not Working: After much research (blood, sweat, and tears), I have found why icons with multiple sizes sometimes do not work. The truth is, is that the order matters. When making the icon, add the larger icon sizes first, then the smaller ones. (e.g. png2ico icon.ico icon_128x128.png icon_64x64.png icon_48x48.png icon_32x32.png icon_16x16.png)

-- SunjayVarma 2011-08-05 21:54:36

Now I've managed to give an icon to my program, but when the program starts, a standard Windows icon shows up in the window's title bar and in the task bar button (instead of my custom icon). Is there a way I can fix that myself, or is that a current limitation of py2exe?

As far as putting icons on your window itself (above is just for the file in explorer I think) it depends on the gui library you are using. For wxWindows 2.4 it would be something like this where self is a wx.Frame derived class instance Example:

   1     _icon = wx.EmptyIcon()
   2     _icon.CopyFromBitmap(wx.Bitmap("MyIcon.ico", wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ANY))
   3     self.SetIcon(_icon)

The following also works, at least in wxPython 2.5.2.8 and other recent ones.

   1     _icon = wx.Icon('MyIcon.ico', wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ICO)
   2     self.SetIcon(_icon)

This should allow the system to pick an appropriate icon. ( only tested with 2.5.3 )

   1     ib=wx.IconBundle()
   2     ib.AddIconFromFile("MyIcon.ico",wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ANY)
   3     self.SetIcons(ib)

Simple icon embedding (full)

I have found that this works just fine with the latest python/py2exe install...

from distutils.core import setup
import py2exe

setup(
    console = [
        {
            "script": "main.py",                    ### Main Python script    
            "icon_resources": [(0, "icon.ico")]     ### Icon to embed into the PE file.
        }
    ],
) 

as far as I can tell this works just fine. small/large icons are detectable in a resource editor like Xn resource editor.

-- Morgan Gangwere

How to access a Win32 .exe's or .dll's icons from wxPython 2.6.1.0 The following information was discovered by looking at gdiimage.cpp in the wxPython source.

Supposing your py2exe setup.py file had the following icons:

"icon_resources": [(1, "myicon1.ico"), (42, "myicon2.ico")]

To programmatically determine the path of the currently running .exe, use:

import win32api
exeName = win32api.GetModuleFileName(win32api.GetModuleHandle(None))

You can get the first icon (myicon1.ico) in the .exe with the following:

icon = wx.Icon(exeName, wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ICO)

You can also get the first icon (myicon1.ico) with a zero based index:

icon = wx.Icon(exeName + ";0", wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ICO)

Likewise, you can get the second icon (myicon2.ico) with:

icon = wx.Icon(exeName + ";1", wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ICO)

You can get an icon based on it's icon id, just specify the negated id number (myicon2.ico):

icon = wx.Icon(exeName + ";-42", wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ICO)

Because of the way it's implemented, you cannot specify ";-1", you will get incorrect operation or a crash.

If you wanted to set your window's title bar and task switch icons you would do the following in your wx.Frame _ _init_ _:

self.SetIcon(icon)

Here's an example program:

   1 import wx, win32api
   2 
   3 class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
   4     def __init__(self, parent=None):
   5         wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent, wx.ID_ANY)
   6 
   7         # set window icon
   8         exeName = win32api.GetModuleFileName(win32api.GetModuleHandle(None))
   9         icon = wx.Icon(exeName, wx.BITMAP_TYPE_ICO)
  10         self.SetIcon(icon)
  11 
  12 if __name__ == '__main__':
  13     app = wx.App(redirect=False)
  14     frame = MyFrame()
  15     frame.Show(True)
  16     app.MainLoop()

CustomIcons (last edited 2011-08-05 21:58:17 by SunjayVarma)