I've tried setting dwItemData to IDI_SHIELD, I've tried setting it to LoadIcon(NULL,IDI_SHIELD) and I've tried setting it to an invisible HWND that has IDI_SHIELD as it's icon. Minfo.dwItemData = (ULONG_PTR)IDI_SHIELD The MSDN help for MENUITEMINFO suggests that you can do this to use an icon: NOTE: Zoom in on Screenshot.bmp and observe how the red cross symbol (Test.bmp) blends perfectly with the menu background while the UAC shield icon (UACShield.bmp) does not blend properly. The BMP files and a screenshot are available in the following location: Everything else is the same, I just use a different BMP file for the second menu item. I don't have any clue why the alpha channel is not working properly for me with the UAC bitmap even though it is working fine when I use the other BMP file.

The strangest thing is that I can get perfect results with another 32-bit BMP file. That is, the image is not blending to the menu background as it should. The image appears in the menu but the borders of the image do not look perfect. I am using LoadImage with LR_CREATEDIBSECTION to load the image, and I am using MIIM_BITMAP in MENUITEMINFO. I have included the BMP in my module's resources. I have extracted the 16x16, 32-bit version of the UAC icon from USER32.DLL and saved it as a 32-bit BMP file using GIF Movie Gear. It is not working properly, it appears as if the alpha channel were getting converted into a 1-bit alpha channel. I've tried to get the UAC icon to appear in a menu with true transparency, but I am experiencing a strange problem with the alpha channel.

Remove uac shield from icon windows 10