Where is the ICON for Add/Remove shortcut is stored?

Most of the product owners prefers to use Custom / Product specific icons for Add / Remove Programs (ARP) entry instead of using the default InstallShield or Windows Installer icon. Though we have an option to specify the ARP icon while creating the installer, we always wonder where this icon is stored after installation. This article details about that.

Once the product is installed, the following registry key is created.

• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\0CBC24CEC944140453282975376B5482   

ProductIcon - C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{EC42CBC0-449C-4041-3582-925773B64528}\ARPPRODUCTICON.exe

• The Custom ARP icon is stored in the form of ARPPRODUCTION.exe under C:\WINDOWS\Installer\<ProductGUID>. This is just a few kb file which has the Custom icon set for it. Please note that C:\WINDOWS\Installer is a hidden folder.
• Now you will wonder where does the key - 0CBC24CEC944140453282975376B5482 comes from. Being the developer you can easily conclude that this code is neither a Product Code nor a Package Code nor an Upgrade Code. There is a small trick involved in forming this code from Product Code and here is the steps to arrive the same
• Remove the curly braces and write the Product Code
  EC42CBC0-449C-4041-3582-925773B64528
• Reverse each piece of the Product Code
  0CBC24CE-C944-1404-5328-2975376B5482
• Remove the spaces and -'s between the above code and you will get
  0CBC24CEC944140453282975376B5482This is used under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products.