Looking to do a little customization to the
Windows 8 Start Screen? Well, you really can’t do much with the built-in
options in Windows 8. You can make the tiles a little larger or smaller
and change the overall color scheme of the Start Screen, but that’s
about it.
Luckily, someone wrote a nifty tool that lets you create your own customized tile on the Windows 8 Start Screen. For example, I use a program called Process Explorer to analyze processes on my Windows 8 system. I created a custom tile for this and it looks like this:
Sweet huh? You can create a custom tile with your own picture, clipart or whatever you like. You can also have it open any program, file, folder or even a website. So what’s the program? It’s called OblyTile and you can download it here.
OblyTile is a pretty easy to use program. Once you download it, just run the program, there is no need to install it. You’ll see the following screen:
There are a couple of options you have to fill out in order to use the program:
- Tile Name – You have to give your tile a name. You can choose to hide the name if you like, but you still have to give it a name.
- Program Path – This can be the path to an EXE file, a PDF file, a folder, or a website.
- Program Arguments - This is optional, but if you want to pass any command line arguments to your program.
- Tile Image – A 120×120 pixel image for your tile.
- Tile Small Image - A 30×30 pixel image for your tile.
- Tile Background Color - Lastly, you have to choose a tile background color.
Here’s an example of my creating a custom tile for the Process Explorer program. I apologize in advance for the horrible purple shown above!
To get rid of your tile, just right-click on it and chose Unpin from Start. That will remove it. Currently, there is no way to re-load a tile you created and then unpinned. You have to go through all the steps again. Not a big deal, but it would be nice if you could load up the previous tiles considering it saves all of them at C:\Program Files\OblyTile.
That’s about i! Overall, a nice program for creating custom tiles that doesn’t require you to know any coding! You can really jazz up your Start Screen with this tool. Also, it just got released so there are bound to be a lot more features in the coming months. Enjoy!
Luckily, someone wrote a nifty tool that lets you create your own customized tile on the Windows 8 Start Screen. For example, I use a program called Process Explorer to analyze processes on my Windows 8 system. I created a custom tile for this and it looks like this:
Sweet huh? You can create a custom tile with your own picture, clipart or whatever you like. You can also have it open any program, file, folder or even a website. So what’s the program? It’s called OblyTile and you can download it here.
OblyTile is a pretty easy to use program. Once you download it, just run the program, there is no need to install it. You’ll see the following screen:
There are a couple of options you have to fill out in order to use the program:
- Tile Name – You have to give your tile a name. You can choose to hide the name if you like, but you still have to give it a name.
- Program Path – This can be the path to an EXE file, a PDF file, a folder, or a website.
- Program Arguments - This is optional, but if you want to pass any command line arguments to your program.
- Tile Image – A 120×120 pixel image for your tile.
- Tile Small Image - A 30×30 pixel image for your tile.
- Tile Background Color - Lastly, you have to choose a tile background color.
Here’s an example of my creating a custom tile for the Process Explorer program. I apologize in advance for the horrible purple shown above!
To get rid of your tile, just right-click on it and chose Unpin from Start. That will remove it. Currently, there is no way to re-load a tile you created and then unpinned. You have to go through all the steps again. Not a big deal, but it would be nice if you could load up the previous tiles considering it saves all of them at C:\Program Files\OblyTile.
That’s about i! Overall, a nice program for creating custom tiles that doesn’t require you to know any coding! You can really jazz up your Start Screen with this tool. Also, it just got released so there are bound to be a lot more features in the coming months. Enjoy!
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