Converting Mac OS X icons to Windows XP

Software

The following is a list of software used in this tutorial. Please download and install these programs under Windows XP before proceeding.

• Stuffit Expander for Windows
• Axialis IconWorkshop

1. Download Icons

Download a set of Mac OS X icons from InterfaceLIFT.com. For this tutorial, we will download Fat-Roll by Matthew Bice.

Save the file in a temporary or download folder.

2. Setup Stuffit Expander

Options" align="right" border="0" height="180" width="170">

You will need to setup Stuffit Expander to properly extract Macintosh files with resource forks from stuffit archives. If Expander is not setup properly, icons files may have a length of zero bytes after being expanded.

1. Launch Aladdin Expander
2. Choose Options from the Edit menu.
3. Click on the Cross Platform tab.
4. Chose the following settings:
1. Convert Text files to Windows Format: Never
2. Save Macintosh Files in MacBinary Format: Always
3. Add File Extension: Never
5. Click OK

This setup process only needs to be done once. You can skip this step the next time you convert Mac OS X icons to the format that Windows XP uses.

3. Extract Icon using Stuffit Expander

Drag and drop the downloaded file 0379_fatroll.sit onto the Stuffit Expander application icon. Extract the icon into the same place where you downloaded the file. Stuffit Expander will create two items: a SIT file called Fat-Roll.sit and a folder called Fat-Roll.

4. Rename Icon

Open the Fat-Roll folder. Inside is a subdirectory called The Icons. Open that folder and you will see 3 files. The file named 'Fat-Roll' is the actual icon file. Rename it to 'Fat-Roll.icns'. If the file already has the .icns extension you can simply leave it alone.

5. Open the Icon in IconWorkshop

If files with the .icns extension are properly recognized by Windows XP, you can simply double-click to open them in IconWorkshop. If not, launch the IconWorkshop program and select Open from the File menu. Locate and open the Fat-Roll.icns file.

6. Save the Icon as a Windows .ICO File

Once Fat-Roll.icns is open, save the file into the .ico format. To do this, select Save As from the File menu and set the Type to .ico. IconWorkshop will save the icon with the alpha channels preserved, allowing for transparency effects.

That is all there is to it! Once Mac OS X icons are converted to the .ico format, they can be used in Windows like any native icon.

If you're looking for the full 128x128 pixel dimensions, continue on with the second article in this series, Using 128x128 32-bit Icons in Windows XP.