IconLocation

IconLocation is a field used in Windows shortcut (.lnk) files that specifies the icon resource displayed for the shortcut. It is part of the Windows Shell Link data format and is exposed through the Windows Shell APIs, such as IShellLinkW and the PKEY_ShellLink_IconLocation property.

The value of IconLocation is typically a string that contains a path to an icon resource, optionally followed by a comma and an index to select a specific icon within that resource. Common forms include paths to executable files, DLLs, or ICO files, for example: IconLocation=C:\Program Files\MyApp\MyApp.exe,0 or IconLocation=C:\Icons\MyIcon.ico,0. It can also use resource libraries like shell32.dll,5 to reference a particular icon within a system file.

If the IconLocation path is invalid or omitted, Windows may fall back to displaying the default icon associated with the shortcut’s target or a generic icon. The IconLocation value can be viewed and modified by shortcut editing tools and programming interfaces that manipulate shell links.

In practice, IconLocation is used to customize the appearance of shortcuts without altering the target file. It can be set or changed to improve visual identification, and it is stored as part of the shortcut’s metadata within the LNK file.

See also: Windows shortcut (LNK) file format, IShellLink interface, PKEY_ShellLink_IconLocation.