Create custom Start Screen tiles!

By Ice_Blue
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

Ice_Blue

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OblyTile is a free tile creator for Windows that you can use to exchange app tiles on the startpage of the Windows 8 operating system.

custom-windows-8-app-tiles.jpg

Here is how it works. You extract the program on your computer and run it afterwards. The application displays four mandatory and one optional field.

  • Tile name ? the name of the application
  • Program path ? the path of the program, use the file browser to select it
  • Program arguments ? if you want to run the program with command line arguments, add them here
  • Tile image ? select a 120?120 and 30?30 px image for the program.

You can download various sets of Metro images from the Internet, for instance from Deviant art, or create your own tile images that you want to use in programs like Photoshop or Gimp. It is important that the tiles have the right dimensions.The program saves all created tiles under C:\ProgramFiles\OblyTile.

I ran into an issue using the program. The startpage tiles are created when I use the program to create a new tile, but the images that I have selected do not show up. I?m not sure if this is because of the 64-bit version of Windows 8 that I?m running, or a bug in the program.

It also needs to be noted that you can?t change backgrounds of Windows Store apps right now due to the lack of executable files on the system. OblyTile regardless of that is a program that many users may find useful. (via Deskmodder)

Update: The author of the program has fixed the issue. I have justed tried version 0.7 of the program and it is working as advertised on my 64-bit version of Windows 8. The new version ships with options to hide the tile name that you enter, and four tile background colors that you can select one from.

Credit:

http://www.ghacks.net/2012/09/27/create-custom-windows-8-app-tiles-with-oblytile/

Download site:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1899865

  • remixedcat, subcld and neo1911
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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1108529-create-custom-start-screen-tiles/
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Grand Master

Ice_Blue

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Is it usable to non super geeks?

It's quite easy to use, even for non-geeks.

Basically, gather your tile images in advance, one large and one small for each tile you want to change.

Then run the program, and fill in the relevant information as stated in the article.:

  • Tile name ? the name of the application
  • Program path ? the path of the program, use the file browser to select it
  • Program arguments ? if you want to run the program with command line arguments, add them here
  • Tile image ? select a 120?120 and 30?30 px image for the program.

(The third line is optional)

Then press "Create Tile"

When you return to the Start Screen, your new tile should be there in all its glory.

Grand Master

Ice_Blue

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Are the generated icons easily portable? That is, can they be backed up and moved to a new Windows install?

This I'm not sure of. The tiles are stored in the program's folder, so they should be easy to copy over to a new install.

As to getting Windows to re-instate them, I will have to try in a VM.

Surely someone will make a more polished program that works similarly. Perhaps Stardock, and I'll have a nice system for managing the tiles.

It's only a matter of time. I am guessing that once Windows 8 is released to the public, some enterprising soul will do just that.

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