Changing node webkit app icon on windows from cli

Question

I'm currently trying to build a .bat script to autobuild my node-webkit application, and the only missing thing is changing the generated .exe icon.

I've been digging the interwebs for a while whitout finding any working solution.

So far I've tried :

• Resource Hacker : I managed to change the icon using the application, but could not make it work with a script. Here is a screenshot of resource hacker with my exe I tried the following commands :
  • ResHacker -modify App.exe, AppTest.exe, MyIcon.ico, Icon, 1
  • ResHacker -modify App.exe, AppTest.exe, MyIcon.ico, Icon, 1, 1033
  • ResHacker -addoverwrite App.exe, AppTest.exe, MyIcon.ico, "Icon Group", IDR_MAINFRAME, 1033
  • ResHacker -addoverwrite App.exe, AppTest.exe, MyIcon.ico, "Icon Group", IDR_MAINFRAME

Unfortunately, none of these created the AppTest.exe file neither did they print and error message.

• RCEDIT.exe which is part of the WinRun4JS application, their home page shows an example of using RCEDIT to change the icon : RCEDIT.exe /I [YourApp].exe [YourApp].ico, this is indeed working iconwise, but it breaks the node-webkit executable and leaves me with an application running the default nodejs page. ( As a reminder, node-webkit exe are built this way

• Various other applications worked fine but none of them seemed to propose a command line interface.

I feel like I'm quite close to the solution with Resource Hacker and I might have missed something obious while fiddling with it but right now I can't thing of anything else to try.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day !

Answer 1

As always, I was not trying hard enough, the right command for ResHacker was :

ResHacker -addoverwrite "App.exe", "AppTest.exe", "MyIcon.ico", ICONGROUP, IDR_MAINFRAME, 1033

Also if someone wants to dig mvanderw's solution you will need Resourcer and then run the following command :

Resourcer -op:upd -src:App.exe -type:14 -name:IDR_MAINFRAME -file:MyIncon.ico

Answer 2

I would rather not update the icon of the nw.exe, since it's what NodeWebKit provides. What my solution was to launch the application through a shortcut and setting the proper icon for the shortcut. That way we are using NW but not hacking it.

Note: context was windows and a setup creator like "Inno Setup", makes it easy to do.

UPDATE: Now that I got your question, why don't you use the WinIco options of the nw-builder.

options.winIco

Extracted from the gulp task

var nw = new NwBuilder({
    version: '0.12.0',
    files: [ bases.dist + '**'],
    platforms: ['win'],
    buildDir: bases.webkit,
    winIco: 'YourApp.ico',
    macIcns: 'YourApp.icns'
});