A while back I had asked for an icon editing program as to make my own icon that I could not find elsewhere.
Well, I wish I knew then what I know now,
WinXP will convert them if you change the file extension on a .bmp to .ico! It's as simple as that. It doesn't even seem to care what size the picture is either.
As for the results, I'd say it probably depends on what you want to make into an icon.
That icon that I had made before, I changed the extension on it and it looks as good if not better than the one I made with the icon editing program.
Ok, that's enough brilliant discovery for me tonight, I'm going to bed!