Attaching a system imagelist to a list control

A system image list contains each file, folder, shortcut, etc. ‘s icon.  This can come 
in very handy for creating a custom explore type application.  The first step consists
of getting the small and large (if you want it) image lists from the system then attaching
them to a CImageList and then adding them  to your list control.  Don’t forget to Detach() them after you 
are done or else all the icons on the system will disappear and a reboot seems to be the only fix. 

Create the following member variables in you list control class: 
CImageList m_smallImageList; 
CImageList m_largeImageList; 

And add this function: 
void CSystemListCtrl::InitializeSystemImageList() 

 //image list setup 
 HIMAGELIST  hSystemSmallImageList, hSystemLargeImageList; 
 SHFILEINFO    ssfi, lsfi; 

   //get a handle to the system small icon list 
 hSystemSmallImageList = 
  (HIMAGELIST)SHGetFileInfo( 
  (LPCTSTR)_T(“C:\”), 
  0, 
  &ssfi, 
  sizeof(SHFILEINFO), 
  SHGFI_SYSICONINDEX | SHGFI_SMALLICON); 
//attach it to the small image list 
//–DON’T FORGET TO PUT m_smallImageList.Detach();  in your destructor 

 m_smallImageList.Attach(hSystemSmallImageList); 

  //do the same for the large 
 hSystemLargeImageList = 
  (HIMAGELIST)SHGetFileInfo( 
  (LPCTSTR)_T(“C:\”), 
  0, 
  &lsfi, 
  sizeof(SHFILEINFO), 
  SHGFI_SYSICONINDEX | SHGFI_ICON); 
 m_largeImageList.Attach(hSystemLargeImageList); 

  //Set the list control image list 
 SetImageList(&m_smallImageList, LVSIL_SMALL); 
 SetImageList(&m_largeImageList, LVSIL_NORMAL); 

}

You will also need a function to get the image ID for each item you would like to dispaly
int CSystemListCtrl::GetIconIndex(const CString& csFileName)  //full path and file name
{               
        SHFILEINFO    sfi;

        SHGetFileInfo(
           (LPCTSTR)csFileName, 
           0,
           &sfi, 
           sizeof(SHFILEINFO), 
           SHGFI_SYSICONINDEX | SHGFI_SMALLICON );

        return sfi.iIcon;
}

Feed this result back into you ListCtrl LV_ITEM struct and you are on your way.

Note:  Windows 95/98 returns a full image list upfront where as NT4.0 only will retreive the icons as you ask for them in the future.


“If you do an imagecount on the imagelist right after you get the handle, you’ll see the smaller imagelist.
Only until you iterate throught the various documents are they added to the NT imagelist.” – Gil Rosin


Thanks to Robert Edward Caldecott and Gil Rosin for pointing this out! 
   

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