Extract an EXE Icon to PNG Using PowerShell (No Installs Needed)

If you want to grab the icon from a Windows application without installing any third-party software, PowerShell can handle it natively using built-in .NET libraries. This method is ideal for creating documentation, shortcuts, or deployment visuals when you need the actual program icon as a PNG file.

What This Script Does

The script lets you browse for any .exe file, extracts its main application icon, and saves it as a transparent .png file in the same folder. Everything runs locally with no external dependencies.

The Script

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing

Add-Type -AssemblyName PresentationCore

# Open file browser to pick an EXE

$dialog = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog

$dialog.Filter = "Executable Files (*.exe)|*.exe"

$dialog.Title = "Select an EXE to extract the icon from"

if ($dialog.ShowDialog() -eq [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK) {

$exe = $dialog.FileName

$out = [IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($exe, ".png")

$icon = [System.Drawing.Icon]::ExtractAssociatedIcon($exe)

$bitmap = $icon.ToBitmap()

$fs = New-Object IO.FileStream($out, [IO.FileMode]::Create)

$bitmap.Save($fs, [System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat]::Png)

$fs.Close()

Write-Host "Saved PNG icon to $out"

} else {

Write-Host "No file selected."

}