diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4834c4e..509ca69 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 master
 
+- add an icon to the exe on windows
+
 ## 4.1.1 31/07/25
 
 - do our own tile snapping if gtk has no snap mechanism 
diff --git a/src/meson.build b/src/meson.build
index 5d64dbf..8460bd8 100644
--- a/src/meson.build
+++ b/src/meson.build
@@ -10,6 +10,13 @@ resources = gnome.compile_resources(
     source_dir: 'gtk',
 )
 
+if target_machine.system() == 'windows'
+  windows = import('windows')
+  resources += windows.compile_resources('vipsdisp.rc', 
+    args: ['-O', 'coff'], 
+    depend_files: 'vipsdisp.ico')
+endif
+
 headers = files (
     'displaybar.h',
     'fuzzy.h',
diff --git a/src/vipsdisp.ico b/src/vipsdisp.ico
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5cd2aa2
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/vipsdisp.ico differ
diff --git a/src/vipsdisp.rc b/src/vipsdisp.rc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8e8664
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/vipsdisp.rc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+org.libvips.vipsdisp ICON "vipsdisp.ico"