How to Make a New Tile for Your New User Interface
As you may know, Microsoft's Windows 8 features a new User
Interface. What you see after you sign in is a matrix of tiles, many
displaying information which updates as you scan the display.
The purpose of this page is to show you how to create a new tile for your
Windows 8 Metro-style UI.
Regard this exercise as preparaton for the main event of creating a new tile
in the Windows 8 Metro UI.
The easiest way to display a program's tile is to right-click an app, then
select 'Pin to Start' from the bottom right of the screen.
From the new UI,
press WinKey +q.
You should now see 'Search Apps'
Type the first few letters of the App that you want to create a
tile, for example, I typed 'sn' for Snipping Tool.
When your app appears in the results, right-click; this should
induce a white tick.
Now you should be able to see the 'Pin to Start' icon at the very bottom right
of the screen.
Press WinKey, and return to the Metro UI; you should see a new tile
at the very right of the Metro UI, I needed to
scroll right in order to see my 'Snipping Tool'.
If I say to you: 'this is not a easy task', then it may explain
why I divided the
task into three stages. Furthermore, if you cannot make a
Windows 8 tile from this outline, then you have my detailed notes below.
Plan A: Create an old-fashioned Windows shortcut to
your program
The desktop is a good place to start, e.g SnippingTool.
Right-click your shortcut - Pin to start.
Plan B: [optional] Copy your shortcut to this specific folder.
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
Plan B: Use the Metro Search to find your shortcut [Key
point].
'Pin to Start', just as you would an App.
Plan A: Create a Shortcut to the Snipping Tool
The desktop is a good place to create your shortcut. This
won't work at the Metro UI.
Right-click,
select New --> Shortcut, type SnippingTool (all one word) in the dialog box.
I named my shortcut 'GuySnip'.
My reasoning was so that I could find it more easily later.
To give this exercise extra purpose, you could right-click the
shortcut to SnippingGuy, select Properties, Advanced and tick 'Run as
administrator'.
Now right-click the shortcut and 'Pin to start'. [Key point]
Return to the Metro UI and your new tile should be visible at the
right of the screen.
P.S. You can create shortcuts and then tiles for other Windows 8 programs,
I just created one for gpedit.msc.
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You need to copy this shortcut into a specific folder, therefore
right-click and copy the icon into memory. Launch Windows Explorer and
navigate to: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs [Key
point]
Right-click and paste into the folder, see screenshot below.
Note 1: This folder is ProgramData not Program Files. Note 2: It's not possible to create shortcuts here.
Addendum: Alternative Path I discovered by accident
that we could also use this path:
C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Naturally, you need to change 'Administrator' to the name of your user.
Plan B: Search And Pin
Proceed as though your shortcut is an App that you want to Pin to the UI.
Therefore, from the Metro interface type:-
'Snip'. Search Apps should appear and display your shortcut.
Once Search App displays your shortcut, right-click and a white tick
should appear. Look down at the bottom right you should see the Pin.
Click on the Pin to Start. Any problem refer to
pinning an application to
the Metro UI
To return to the Metro UI press the WinKey, your new tile will be
at the extreme right, so scroll until you see your usual logon icon at the
top.
Underneath should be the new Windows 8 Tile that you just created.
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I did NOT need to Sign out / Sign in before my tile arrived.
Sorry to harp on, but you did paste the shortcut to the correct
folder?
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu \Programs Note: ProgramData is a hidden folder. So in
Windows Explorer click on 'View' and tick 'Hidden Items'.
Actually, you can copy the shortcut to the Windows Accessories sub-folder.
Sometimes I get stuck because the 'Destination Folder' dialog box in
the screenshot right is hidden behind other Windows. Find it and
click, 'Continue'.
If you already have a tile / executable with same name, I found
that you could not create the second tile. For example if you have
a short cut called 'Guy Cmd', then you cannot make another one called
'Jo Cmd'.
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A program's tile has more space than the corresponding icon, thus it can
display up-to-date information, for example the latest weather, or a traffic
report.
Furthermore, each tile is
'chromeless' thus the program can use the whole screen since there is no need for
scroll-bars. You manipulate the Windows 8 controls from the sides
with your thumbs, while you can swipe the application's own
controls from the top and bottom with your fore-finger. The golden
rule is that all Apps controls have the same look and feel.
Change of Mind-set When users switch from Windows 7
they need to change their mind-sets and think of flicking through a grid of tiles,
and not be worrying about, 'Where's my shortcut gone?' Those who are
used to Smart Phones will find it easy to abandon thoughts of the old Taskbar and Desktop and
begin to thumb through the Metro UI's mosaic of tiled Apps.
Opinion is divided whether users can indeed switch from 'touch first' Windows 8
at home to the traditional Windows 7 in the workplace. For these
people, one way of
looking at the old style desktop is as just another app which you can launch
from Metro UI.
Suppose you want to find an App. From the Metro UI, just press a
letter on your keyboard! Here is a screenshot of what happened
when I tried 'e'. (No need to call for the Charms and Search.)
If you right-click an App you can 'Pin', or 'Unpin' it to the Metro UI.
It's not long before you start dragging the Tiles around, grouping them and
moving the most important to the left.
Break-down the task into stages. Create a shortcut
corresponding to your tile. Right-click the shortcut and 'Pin to
Start'.
Alternatively, copy the shortcut to the specific folder:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
The final stage of this technique is to search for the Apps and then Pin its tile to the Metro UI
start menu.
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