As others said... the easiest way is 2 make a *.bmp to a *.ico
But some sw don't accept huge icons eg. WinRAR... they need 128 or lower colors in icons... So go for a professional icon editor...
I prefer ArtIcons... great... 4 freeware.. try IconArt
Follow this:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=ic...h=&safe=images