Opening ICO Files

The ICO file type is primarily associated with Windows.

ICO	File extension: ICO
	File type:	icon or icon library

What is an ICO file?

ICO files mostly belong to Windows by Microsoft. ICO is an icon format developed by Microsoft and introduced in Windows 1.0. An ICO file contains a small size (usually 16x16 to 256x256) BMP or PNG image which serves as a file, folder, or application icon in the Explorer, Start, desktop, and other Windows utilities. Multiple ICO files can be compiled into an icon library which is actually a 16-/32-bit Windows executable usually saved in an ICL file. Such icon libraries sometimes have ICO filename extension. ICO format is also used for website, shortcut, URL, and bookmark icons (Favicon). Various image viewers and editors support ICO format.

How can I open an ICO file?

You need a suitable software like Windows to open an ICO file. Without proper software you will receive a Windows message "How do you want to open this file?" or "Windows cannot open this file" or a similar Mac/iPhone/Android alert. If you cannot open your ICO file correctly, try to right-click or long-press the file. Then click "Open with" and choose an application. You can also display a ICO file directly in the browser:. Just drag the file onto this browser window and drop it.

Online ICO File Viewer

Choose your .ico file to view this image

or drag and drop it here

Online File Viewer

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How to convert an ICO file to JPG, PDF, HTML, DOC, ...

1. To do so, click the "Choose your .ico file to view this image" button above.
2. After your file is opened in browser,
3. click "Save as..." in the menu.
4. Then click the file format (e.g. PDF, JPG, DOCX, TXT, ...) you want.
5. Your file will be converted and downloaded.

ICO file format:

If you know the file format, you can also find out how to open or edit the file. The file format can be determined based on the file extension and the signature (the first few characters of a file). Nonetheless, different programs can utilize the same file extension to represent distinct file formats. Double-clicking on the file often results in an error when opening. Exact knowledge of the format is therefore important in order to solve problems occurring in files. Our evaluation of the ICO files is as follows:

ICO is a very common file type and mainly uses a defined ICO format. The following file formats are most commonly found in ICO files:

• 85% of all ICO files belong to Windows Icon. These files are binary files, so they do not contain text, but only cryptic characters. The average file size is 36 KB with most files being between 2 KB and 230 KB in size. The file type was created 10 years ago, but is still used today. The file name favicon.ico is characteristic of these files. Files like these have the following tags: icon, autorun, google, logo, drive, profile, folder and hisuite.
• 3% of all ICO files are based on the popular PNG file format. PNG is short for Portable Network Graphics. It is a high-quality raster image file that supports lossless data compression. The contents of these files cannot be read by a human; only a computer program can interpret the data. The files are often between 750 bytes and 23 KB in size. Certain words are almost always found in the files, such as IHDR, pHYs, gAMA, sRGB and IDATx.

The remaining 12% of all ICO files are files with no common format, often e.g. OS/2 Icon and EXE. Often described as filename, missing, windows, editor, save, dining or earth. If you want to find out what your ICO file contains, drag and drop it onto this page.