This ingenious component acts as a store for an image file. You can add it to your form or control and store an image resource inside it (which will be saved into the RESX), rather than having to embed that image file into your project file. This is also useful if you don't wish to use an image list. An image list will not preserve alpha-channel transparency, whereas this component will preserve the exact bits of the image you specify.
You should only need to use this component at design time. To add it at design time, drag & drop it from the toolbox into the designer. A new image store component should be created in the component tray. After adding the image store component, specify an image using the Image property. To retrieve the image later, just reference the Image property in your code.