diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.cpp b/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.cpp
index e71942b026..4066f807fb 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.cpp
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.cpp
@@ -133,3 +133,13 @@ int
 get_image_allocation_limit() {
     return QImageReader::allocationLimit();
 }
+
+QImage
+image_from_hicon(void* hicon) {
+#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
+    return QImage::fromHICON((HICON)hicon);
+#else
+    (void)hicon;
+    return QImage();
+#endif
+}
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.h b/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.h
index 82df47aea7..9817d4242a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.h
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.h
@@ -162,3 +162,4 @@ void set_menu_on_action(QAction* ac, QMenu* menu);
 QMenu* menu_for_action(const QAction *ac);
 void set_image_allocation_limit(int megabytes);
 int get_image_allocation_limit();
+QImage image_from_hicon(void* hicon);
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.sip b/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.sip
index 5ba46a0aff..209a038009 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.sip
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/progress_indicator/QProgressIndicator.sip
@@ -89,3 +89,4 @@ void set_menu_on_action(QAction* ac, QMenu* menu);
 QMenu* menu_for_action(const QAction *ac);
 void set_image_allocation_limit(int megabytes);
 int get_image_allocation_limit();
+QImage image_from_hicon(void*);
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/open_with/windows.py b/src/calibre/utils/open_with/windows.py
index df3375c24e..b5de257c64 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/open_with/windows.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/open_with/windows.py
@@ -6,17 +6,17 @@ __copyright__ = '2015, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
 
 import re
 import sys
-from qt.core import QBuffer, QByteArray, QImage, QIODevice, QPixmap, Qt
+from qt.core import QBuffer, QByteArray, QIODevice, QPixmap, Qt
 
 from calibre.gui2 import must_use_qt
 from calibre.utils.winreg.default_programs import split_commandline
-from calibre_extensions import winutil
+from calibre_extensions import winutil, progress_indicator
 
 ICON_SIZE = 256
 
 
 def hicon_to_pixmap(hicon):
-    QPixmap.fromImage(QImage.fromHICON(int(hicon)))
+    return progress_indicator.image_from_hicon(int(hicon))
 
 
 def pixmap_to_data(pixmap):