New/updated Icon Sets with Visual Studio 2005

Visual Studio installs with a collection of bitmaps, cursors, icons, metafiles, and videos to assist developers with Windows and Web application development. The collection of image resources from various Microsoft products has accumulated over time, and we’ve heard clearly from our customers that the old outdated elements are essentially unusable and what they need is a library of updated, current images for use in their new applications!

This is one of the top requests that we have heard from our customers via the MSDN Feedback Center. Check out what customers have been asking at: https://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/productfeedback/viewfeedback.aspx?feedbackid=4ceba825-a7d0-4ed2-9164-827dbc24deeb

To answer this need, we have defined and organized a new image resource collection to be shipped with Visual Studio 2005. In Visual Studio 2005 Beta2, customers will see over 600 images in .bmp and .ico format, including the most common actions and elements found Windows, Office and Visual Studio UI. In the RTM version, we will additionally extend the library to include web format (.gif) for our users who would appreciate a smaller size for their web applications.

As a preview, here is a partial list of a few of the common command elements which can be found in the library:

New, Open, Save, Save as Web Page
Print, Print Preview, Print Setup
Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete
Find
Help
Undo, Redo
Back, Forward, Stop, Home, Refresh, Search the Web
Sort (general), Sort Ascending, Sort Descending
Folder, New Folder, Move to Folder
Properties
Hyperlink
Chart
Comment
Page Setup
Fill Color, Font Color
Move Folder, Copy Folder, Delete Folder
Appointment, Meeting Request
Task, Note
Check Spelling
Font, Bullets and Numbering
FullScreen
Decrease Indent, Increase Indent
Align Left, Align Center, Align Right
Bold, Italic, Underline
Bullets, Numbering

Thanks to Anssi Virtanen for giving this input via email.

Namaste!

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  Sounds GREAT!!!
  
  PS: .ico in multi icon format??
  so that the right version is there for different client screens??
  
  like 16x16, 32x32, 48x48
  and color depth 256,16bpp, 24bpp
  
  dev's tend not to be that great at tweaking Gfx bits....

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  Hi Denny
  I'm the designer putting together the library... and yes, .ico is the format that contains multiple images. We appreciate any feedback you have on the new icon sets....
  cheers,
  dw

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  This is excellent news!

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  Very nice. No more raiding shell32.dll!
  
  I look forward to using those with the new MenuStrip class.

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  Great news! I really appreciate all the time and effort that has gone into the new icon library - I get a few "feedback update alerts" every day so there definately is a lot of activity with it!
  
  Thanks!

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  Thank you!

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  I hate to admit it, but this is in the top 5 of my favorite new features for VS 2005. I was disappointed when VS 2003 didn't have updated icons.

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  This is huge, guys, thanks for addressing this issue. This is exactly what I asked for in a blog post about a year ago:
  
  http://www.tallent.us/blog/commentview.aspx?guid=07824e84-b4cf-42f6-8341-5f33bd300e91
  
  Any possibility of including anti-aliased PNG as well? IE's support requires a workaround, but they'll look MUCH nicer than indexed GIFs.

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  At last! :-)
  

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  One question - why the hell has it taken so long? Some of us devs have been crying out for updated sets since Visual Studio '98.

• Anonymous
  January 23, 2005
  Rock on!

• Anonymous
  January 25, 2005
  YES!

• Anonymous
  January 26, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 26, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 27, 2005
  This would be great news and it certainly makes sense. Microsoft wants developers to make applications that look and feel like an application of Windows XP, not of some Windows 95 stuff. They even included the documentation to show how you can make desktop icons look like Windows XP ones. Going one step further to provide the toolbar's icon is a sensible choice.

• Anonymous
  February 01, 2005
  Cut & paste is so 1984 for your code. Grok the new marvel: Code Snippets. In Whidbey (aka Visual Studio 2005), reuse your old code like the object it was written to be. (That's a shot across the bow, o...

• Anonymous
  February 01, 2005
  My intention says right to the point that this site is good and Your blog is a refreshing change from the majority of blogs I have visited I thank you for your efforts to share your insights and help the world become a better place.

• Anonymous
  February 02, 2005
  GENIAL

• Anonymous
  February 12, 2005
  I think it would also be a good idea to allow developers to create derivative/partially copied icons from the ones supplied, so that matching icons can be legally created when necessary.
  
  There will be occasions when developers will need something specific which could not be covered by a general purpose library. In this case, developers will need to author icons. Sometimes, the only way to do this consistently would be to slightly modify an existing icon or even combine two existing icons.
  
  I'd like the license to allow this.

• Anonymous
  February 13, 2005
  Am I missing something ? I think the new images require in alpha channel for antialiasing on any background. Bitmaps "supports" an alpha channel by using a 32 bit depth but this format seems not to be loaded corectly by System.Drawing.Bitmap (it loses it's alpha channel).

• Anonymous
  February 14, 2005
  This is a good interim solution, and sorely needed. However, it's not actually the right long-term solution. What should happen is that support for "standard" buttons should be added to the Windows Theme system.
  
  If this were done, people could load a "metallic" theme on their Longhorn desktop, and things like the Back button on their browser would change their appearance automatically. There's no reason "themes" support should only apply to the windowing system: bring it down to the application level!

• Anonymous
  February 14, 2005
  PS: That "levitra" response is PageRank spam. Should be deleted.

• Anonymous
  February 17, 2005
  How about icons for certificates and email signing/encryption (various certificate icons plus padlock/cert with envelope - ala Outlook)? Will they be included?

• Anonymous
  February 06, 2006
  I just had a look at Somasegar's blog (he’s the Corporate Vice President for Microsoft’s Developer Division)....

• Anonymous
  June 06, 2006
  A customer recently asked me if they can use the standard Microsoft explorer icons in their applications....

• Anonymous
  June 29, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 01, 2007
  In case you've asked yourself the same question I've asked myself - how to "steal" Visual Studio 2005

• Anonymous
  June 13, 2007
  PingBack from http://www.asceticmonk.com/blog/?p=557

• Anonymous
  September 30, 2007
  In case you've asked yourself the same question I've asked myself - how to "steal"

• Anonymous
  April 21, 2008
  Tiny, tiny icons - as much use as a chocolate teapot!

• Anonymous
  January 20, 2009
  PingBack from http://www.hilpers.com/869472-icons-fuer-button-woher

• Anonymous
  September 11, 2009
  Hi. We use custom bitmaps for AddIn Toolbar in VS2005 - 2008. Do you know how make these bitmaps to have AntiAlias effect. Thank you, Alexander. My E-mail ayanushpolsk@bloomberg.net

• Anonymous
  September 14, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  April 06, 2010
  Thanks for the post. It's great!