Convert Vista/Windows 7 Icon to XP Icon

Starting in Vista, Windows supports 256x256 icons. Icons can also be stored as compressed PNG images.

Unfortunately, XP does not support these icons, so if you want to support XP, you can't use them. And your WPF app will throw an XamlParseException with an error message about the image format not being supported.

What if you have icons in the new format and want to use them on XP?

Well, here's what I did and it worked:

• Download the Gimp.
• Open your Vista/W7 icon file.
• Save As a new icon file.
• Uncheck all the "compressed PNG" checkboxes. Make sure to scroll down and get them all.

There you have it.