Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

                                                     ◄Up► ◄Next► ◄Previous►
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
The icon, cursor, and bitmap resources define the appearance of elements of
the Windows desktop, such as the minimize and maximum buttons, scroll boxes,
menu icons, and others. The USER module extracts these resources from the
display driver when Windows starts, then uses BitBlt to copy the resources
to the screen when drawing windows. Windows provides a wide variety of icon,
cursor, and bitmap resources at various resolutions and aspect ratios.
 
Cursors
 
The following table provides a list of required cursor resources. The last
four cursors in the list are no longer used by Windows, but must be provided
for compatibility with existing Windows applications.
 
Resource      Appearance
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
CROSS.CUR     An upright cross used as a selection marker.*
 
IBEAM.CUR     An I-beam shaped cursor used in edit control windows.
 
ICON.CUR      An empty box formerly used when the mouse was in the icon
              area.*
 
NORMAL.CUR    An upward diagonal arrow used as the default mouse cursor.
 
SIZE.CUR      A box shape formerly used when sizing tiled windows.*
 
SIZENESW.CUR  A two-headed arrow used when sizing windows. Arrows point
              northeast and southwest.
 
SIZENS.CUR    A two-headed arrow used when sizing windows. Arrows point
              north and south.
 
SIZEWE.CUR    A two-headed arrow used when sizing windows. Arrows point west
              and east.
 
SIZENWSE.CUR  A two-headed arrow used when sizing windows. Arrows point
              northwest and southeast.
 
UP.CUR        An upward arrow.*
 
WAIT.CUR      An hourglass that is used while carrying out lengthy
              operations.
 
* These resources are only for compatibility for versions of Windows prior
to 3.0.
 
Icons
 
The following table provides a list of required icons resources.
 
Resource    Appearance
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BANG.ICO    An exclamation mark used to emphasize the consequences of an
            operation.
 
HAND.ICO    A stop sign used to indicate an error condition that halts
            operation.
 
NOTE.ICO    An asterisk used to indicate noncritical situations.
 
QUES.ICO    A question mark used when querying for a reply.
 
SAMPLE.ICO  The default icon used when no other icon to an operation can be
            found.
 
Bitmaps
 
The following table provides a list of required bitmap resources. The first
seven bitmaps have two forms (up and down) used to create a 3-D effect when
pushing in a button. The last eleven bitmaps are no longer used by Windows,
but must be supplied for compatibility with applications that expect them to
be available.
 
Resource      Appearance
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
COMBO.BMP     An arrow used in combo boxes.
 
DOWN.BMP      Up down-pointing arrow for scroll bars.
 
DOWND.BMP     Down down-pointing arrow for scroll bars.
 
LEFT.BMP      Up left-pointing arrow for scroll bars.
 
LEFTD.BMP     Down left-pointing arrow for scroll bars.
 
MAX.BMP       Up maximize button on the title bar.
 
MAXD.BMP      Down maximize button on the title bar.
 
MIN.BMP       Up minimize button on the title bar.
 
MIND.BMP      Down minimize button on the title bar.
 
MNARROW.BMP   An arrow used in multilevel menus.
 
OBTNCORN.BMP  A circle formerly used to draw round-cornered buttons.
 
OBTSIZE.BMP   A size box used at the intersection of vertical and horizontal
              scroll bars.*
 
OBUTTON.BMP   A box used for check boxes in dialog boxes.
 
OCHECK.BMP    A check mark used to check menu items.
 
OCLOSE.BMP    The system-menu bitmaps used for Windows 2.x.*
 
ODOWN.BMP     A down-arrow bitmap used for Windows 2.x.*
 
OLEFT.BMP     A left-arrow bitmap used for Windows 2.x.*
 
ORED.BMP      This resource minimizes the bitmap used for Windows 2.x.*
 
OREST.BMP     Restores the bitmap used for Windows 2.x.*
 
ORIGHT.BMP    A right-arrow bitmap used for Windows 2.x.*
 
OSIZE.BMP     A size box formerly used on tiled windows.*
 
OUP.BMP       An up-arrow bitmap used for Windows 2.x.*
 
OZOOM.BMP     Maximizes the bitmap used for Windows 2.x.*
 
RESTORE.BMP   Up restore button on the title bar.
 
RESTORED.BMP  Down restore button on the title bar.
 
RIGHT.BMP     Up right-pointing arrow for scroll bars.
 
RIGHTD.BMP    Down right-pointing arrow for scroll bars.
 
SYSMENU.BMP   A double-wide image that contains system menu shapes for both
              main windows and multiple document interface (MDI) windows.
 
UP.BMP        Up up-pointing arrow for scroll bars.
 
UPD.BMP       Down up-pointing arrow for scroll bars.
 
* These resources are only for compatibility for versions of Windows prior
to 3.0.
 
 
                                      ♦