Rights to use Windows icons in our apps?
-
Hi, I'm working right now on an application (what it does is not important, if i'd told you, i'd have to kill you ;P ) that will rely on Windows icons (System, IE, and others). Since this will be a comercial app, do I need some kind of permission from MS to use their icons? I mean, what if I have a ListView that displays .txt files from a folder, is it illegal to represent the file with it's correct icon? What if the system folder and I use the special icon that represents it? My guess is that MS provides the users and devs some tools (in this case, icons) to do the job. I just try to make an app that will follow the OS so the user is already at home. Thanks!:)
-
Hi, I'm working right now on an application (what it does is not important, if i'd told you, i'd have to kill you ;P ) that will rely on Windows icons (System, IE, and others). Since this will be a comercial app, do I need some kind of permission from MS to use their icons? I mean, what if I have a ListView that displays .txt files from a folder, is it illegal to represent the file with it's correct icon? What if the system folder and I use the special icon that represents it? My guess is that MS provides the users and devs some tools (in this case, icons) to do the job. I just try to make an app that will follow the OS so the user is already at home. Thanks!:)
Microsoft does place restrictions on the use of icons from its applications. Yeah, it's true that you can find them all over the web. But as far as your example of using the icons in a listview control, I do not think that would be a problem. Those icons are usually stored in libs that are delivered with Windows and it would be expected that application developers will use them so that their apps will meet the Windows standards. I think that Microsoft's intention is that you do not use a Microsoft icon to represent your application (that is, don't use the Word icon for your word processing app) and they don't want their icons used in a way that would cause defamation to their products/company/etc or give the impression that they endorse or manufacture your application. Unless you follow the procedures for getting the MS certified logos for your product. If you go to the Microsoft website and search around, I remember seeing a page somewhere about licensing or copyrights or something that gives detail about the use of MS icons. Also, if you search in the MSDN library, you will find source code for a program (you will have to fix a couple of things to get it to compile in VC++ 6) that allows you to extract icons from a program or dll and save them as a bmp or ico file. WillCodeForMoney
-
Microsoft does place restrictions on the use of icons from its applications. Yeah, it's true that you can find them all over the web. But as far as your example of using the icons in a listview control, I do not think that would be a problem. Those icons are usually stored in libs that are delivered with Windows and it would be expected that application developers will use them so that their apps will meet the Windows standards. I think that Microsoft's intention is that you do not use a Microsoft icon to represent your application (that is, don't use the Word icon for your word processing app) and they don't want their icons used in a way that would cause defamation to their products/company/etc or give the impression that they endorse or manufacture your application. Unless you follow the procedures for getting the MS certified logos for your product. If you go to the Microsoft website and search around, I remember seeing a page somewhere about licensing or copyrights or something that gives detail about the use of MS icons. Also, if you search in the MSDN library, you will find source code for a program (you will have to fix a couple of things to get it to compile in VC++ 6) that allows you to extract icons from a program or dll and save them as a bmp or ico file. WillCodeForMoney