ICNS to ICO
Turn a macOS .icns icon into a Windows ICO. Sizes the ICNS already has are copied unchanged; the rest are scaled from the closest larger image.
How to convert ICNS to ICO
- Choose or drop an .icns file. The images inside are listed right away; nothing is uploaded.
- Check the size tiles. From file means that artwork is copied from the ICNS as it is.
- Download the ICO. It holds every selected size, up to 256 px.
Looking for the icon of a Mac app? Right-click the app, choose Show Package Contents, then open Contents › Resources.
Use the ICO on Windows
For a shortcut, open Properties › Change Icon. For a folder, open Properties › Customize › Change Icon. Electron and Tauri Windows builds take the same .ico file as the app icon.
Going the other way? Use ICO to ICNS. To turn the result into an editable vector, try ICO to SVG.
ICNS to ICO questions
Will the small sizes look the same as on the Mac?
Yes, when the ICNS contains them. Good Mac icons ship simplified 16 and 32 px artwork, and those images are copied instead of shrinking the 1024 px version. Sizes the ICNS lacks are scaled down from the nearest larger image in steps, which keeps edges clean.
What happens to 512 and 1024 px?
ICO stops at 256 px, so larger ICNS images are only used as sources for scaling.
Is transparency kept?
Yes. Every size is saved as PNG inside the ICO with its full alpha channel, which Windows Vista and later and all current browsers read.
Why was an image skipped?
Old ICNS files from the OS X 10.5 era can store images as JPEG 2000, which browsers cannot decode. PNG images and the classic RLE images with masks are read. If everything was skipped, open the ICNS in Preview on a Mac and export a PNG, then use PNG to ICO.
Can I get the PNG files instead?
Convert to ICO here, then extract the PNGs, or resize the ICO if you need different sizes. For a plain bitmap source, use BMP to ICO.