Windows spreads its network icons across four files, the general pictures in shell32.dll and imageres.dll, the connection hardware in netshell.dll and the wifi and ethernet status glyphs in pnidui.dll. None of them ship a clean online and offline pair made for an app, so connection status is the one you draw or license. The Univik ICO Converter opens any of these files and saves a network icon as a transparent PNG.
You are wiring up a status bar or a connection panel, and you want the little network picture to look like it belongs on Windows. The art exists, but it is scattered across more files than you would expect, and the one icon you want most is the one Windows never really made.
This guide sorts the whole set out. What a networked app needs, which file each picture comes from, why connection status is the sticking point and how to end up with icons you can actually ship.
What a Networked App Needs to Show
Strip a network interface down and the icon needs are few. A user wants to know the link is up, what kind of link it is, what they are connected to and whether anything is wrong. Each of those maps to a different picture and, awkwardly, a different source.
| Icon need | What it tells the user | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Connection status | Online, limited or offline | VS Image Library or your own art |
| Wifi and ethernet | The kind of link in use | pnidui.dll, the system status set |
| Server and host | The machine you reach | imageres.dll and shell32.dll |
| Internet and globe | Web or wide area access | shell32.dll and imageres.dll |
| Network drive | A mapped remote folder | shell32.dll and imageres.dll |
| Connection hardware | Adapters, routers, Bluetooth | netshell.dll |
Read down that last column and the pattern jumps out. Everything except connection status has a home somewhere in Windows. Status is the gap, so it is where the rest of this guide spends its time.
Connection Status, the Hard Part
The icon a network app leans on most is the one Windows never drew for you. There is no tidy online, limited and offline trio sitting in a system file ready to drop into a window. The status glyphs that do exist were made for the taskbar, so they carry system styling and do not read well at app sizes or against your own colours.
So build the three states yourself or take them from a set meant for software. Three cards cover it.
Keeping all three in one visual family, the same weight and corner style, is what sells them as native. A borrowed status glyph next to two hand drawn ones is the fastest way to look unfinished.
The Wifi and Ethernet Icons Live in pnidui.dll
The signal bars and ethernet plug you see in the system tray come from pnidui.dll, the network system icons file. Reference lists of the icon files buried in Windows place the wifi and status art here. Open it in a viewer and most of the art looks blank, because the icons are drawn in transparent white for a dark taskbar. Select one and it appears.
Two things make this a poor source to draw from for an app. The white styling fights any light interface, and the file itself keeps shifting. Microsoft removed pnidui.dll in Windows 11 24H2 and shifted the status art elsewhere, so a hard reference to it can simply break on a newer build. Treat these as system icons to recognise, not to reuse.
Connection Hardware Sits in netshell.dll
When the picture is a piece of network gear rather than a signal, netshell.dll is the file. It carries adapters, wireless routers, Bluetooth and the connection types Windows knows about, the art behind the old Network Connections window. For a settings screen that lists interfaces, this is the closest match to what users already see.
The netshell.dll connection icons look like this, the adapters, routers and link types Windows draws for its settings screens.
A network adapter shown as a device rather than a connection is a slightly different case, and that picture comes from the device set. The breakdown of that file is in our guide to the ddores.dll device icons, worth a look if your app enumerates hardware.
Globe, Computer and Internet from the Shell
The everyday network pictures, a globe for the internet, a monitor for a host, a network drive, come from the two big shell files. shell32.dll keeps the classic versions, catalogued in our shell32.dll icon list, and imageres.dll holds the modern ones File Explorer shows today, which the imageres.dll icon list lays out in full. Independent maps of the native Windows icons group the internet, network and computer art in these two files.
Grabbing one for a mockup takes about a minute.
- Open the file in a viewerPoint an icon viewer at shell32.dll or imageres.dll under System32.
- Find the network pictureScroll to the globe, the connected computer or the network drive you need.
- Note the indexThe number beside it is what a shortcut or the registry uses, and how those numbers work is covered in our guide to finding an icon index.
- Export itSave the icon as an ICO or a transparent PNG for reference.
If you cannot place a picture in either file, the full list of icon libraries is in where Windows stores its icons.
Network Glyphs Built for Apps
For the status and connection glyphs Windows leaves out, the cleanest licensed source is the set Microsoft ships for developers. The Visual Studio Image Library includes connection, cloud, server and network pictures drawn in the same visual language as Windows tooling, sized and coloured for a real interface rather than a taskbar.
Downloading the set means accepting its licence, and the headline limit is simple, you cannot use Microsoft branding to suggest it endorses your app. How to get and use that set is in our guide to the Visual Studio Image Library.
Open shell32.dll, netshell.dll or pnidui.dll, browse the network art with each icon's number and export your pick as a transparent PNG.
Free Download See All FeaturesKnow the Rights Before You Ship
Extracting a Windows network icon to study it or size a layout is reasonable. Shipping that art inside a product you sell is a different matter, because the pictures are Microsoft's and, as pnidui.dll showed, they can move or vanish between builds. A pinned system icon is a support ticket waiting to happen.
The safe pattern is simple. Reference the Windows art to match its feel, then license or draw the icons you actually distribute. The full rights question, Windows icons included, is one we cover in whether extracted icons are legal to use.
A network icon pulled by index from a system file is fragile twice over. The number can shift on an update, and the whole file can be retired, which is exactly what happened to pnidui.dll in 24H2. Bundle your own network icons in the build so a Windows change never blanks your status bar.
Draw Your Own for What You Distribute
For anything you release, your own network icons are the steady choice, drawn or licensed, so they never lean on a Windows version. Keep the three status states in one family, add the server, drive and globe you need, and you have a set that reads as native without borrowing a pixel.
The steps to make your own are in converting PNG to ICO. If you are building a data tool rather than a network client, the same routing by need is in our guide to native Windows icons for a database or admin tool.
Frequently Asked Questions
Written and maintained by Leena Taylor Paul and the Univik team, developers of Windows data conversion and recovery software since 2013. We wrote this after fielding the same question over and over, why Windows has no ready made online and offline pair for an app, so this guide maps what exists and what you have to draw yourself. Last verified August 2026. Building a network screen? Contact our support team.