Default icon for .exe file regardless of Windows version

Question

I show a bunch of exe files in a listview, and I want to show their default icon, but if the exe file has no icon resource, I would like to show the Windows default application icon regardless of the OS version. If I check the registries at:

 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\exefile\DefaultIcon]

the default value is "%1", which is the first icon in the exe file itself. But where is the default .exe icon for exe files with no icon?

Answer 1

This is what XP does (this is actually a shortcut, but you get the point)

It's been awhile; but doesn't shell32 handle this?

Here's an older article from stackoverflow