HICON icon handle - save icon to HDD

See the article at http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/g-m/bitmap/article.php/c1697/ ("Writing a bitmap to a BMP file"). the scoop is to

// WriteDIB            - Writes a DIB to file
// Returns            - TRUE on success
// szFile            - Name of file to write to
// hDIB                  - Handle of the DIB
BOOL WriteDIB( LPTSTR szFile, HANDLE hDIB)
{
      BITMAPFILEHEADER      hdr;
      LPBITMAPINFOHEADER      lpbi;

      if (!hDIB)
            return FALSE;

      CFile file;
      if( !file.Open( szFile, CFile::modeWrite|CFile::modeCreate) )
            return FALSE;

      lpbi = (LPBITMAPINFOHEADER)hDIB;

      int nColors = 1 << lpbi->biBitCount;

      // Fill in the fields of the file header
      hdr.bfType            = ((WORD) ('M' << 8) | 'B');      // is always "BM"
      hdr.bfSize            = GlobalSize (hDIB) + sizeof( hdr );
      hdr.bfReserved1       = 0;
      hdr.bfReserved2       = 0;
      hdr.bfOffBits            = (DWORD) (sizeof( hdr ) + lpbi->biSize +
                                    nColors * sizeof(RGBQUAD));

      // Write the file header
      file.Write( &hdr, sizeof(hdr) );

      // Write the DIB header and the bits
      file.Write( lpbi, GlobalSize(hDIB) );

      return TRUE;
}

Since icons and bitmaps use the same format, that works for icons too.

BTW, see also http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997538.aspx ("Icons in Win32"). The sample code attached to the article (http://download.microsoft.com/download/win95/utility/1.0/w9xxp/en-us/4493.exe) should prove quite useful.