Windows 10: Manually edit tile icons in Start Menu?

Hello,

I've been searching for a while but I couldn't find sufficient answers on how to do this.

Is there a tutorial to manually make and set tile icons for 3rd party programs that fill up the tiles as a whole just like Store app icons, without using any editing software?
The reason I want to do this manually is because the apps in the Windows Store that can edit these icons have to pop up every time I start the program that I have edited its icon with the editing app. This seems to be something that can't be disabled.
Oblytile seemed to be a good editing app that doesn't pop up every time you start up the program you've edited its icon of, but unfortunately it's not compatible with Windows 10 anymore.

Also, if there is an editing app that doesn't pop up, I'd really like it to be able to also make wide tiles (not just small or medium squared tiles) since many editing apps don't support that.

Looking forward to answers on this.

:)

 

Can I edit the tiles to either show names that I can relate to or import icons

*O.T.> Start menu tile

On the start menu tiles can I edit the tiles to either show names that I can relate to or import icons that I can understand. Using Windows 10 on surface pro 4

 

Why do my Windows Phone 8 tiles change position by themselves

Hello V-Bmyers,

If you watch the video, at 1:37 you can see him flipping the phone over and the tile on the top left is in "edit" mode where it shows the "remove pin" and "minimize/maximize" round icons that are black and white on the right side of the tile.



As for "random" moving tiles, this was because this particular person held his phone in a way that part of his hand was on a tile and placed it in "edit" mode and his hand moved the tile up and to the left. You will notice an empty tile to the right of the
large tile at the top.



If you happen to keep your phone in your hand while the "Start" page is up, you might be causing the phone to have the "Start" page in edit mode. This allows you to move tiles, resize tiles, and remove tiles from the "Start" Page.



Hopefully this solves the mystery of your changing tiles.



John

 

Tutorial from @Hopachi he made at Eight Forums: Solved Custom Tiles (for Desktop Apps)

And her in Ten Forums, where I learned fro him and created and posted some of mine: Windows 10 Themes created by Ten Forums members - Page 121 - Solved - Windows 10 Forums

<Application xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'>
<VisualElements
ShowNameOnSquare150x150Logo='on'
Square150x150Logo='chrome.png'
Square70x70Logo='chrome.png'
ForegroundText='light'
BackgroundColor='#343434'/>
</Application>


Save as Program name(get from the executable).VisualElementsManifest

For Chrome it was chrome.VisualElementsManifest

You need to get/use a .png icon 256x256 pixels and give it the exact name(case sensitive) as the program executable (.exe) has and also use that exact name when creating your XML manifest file.

The place both files in the same exact folder as the .exe, delete the original old files, or better yet cut and paste them to a folder in Documents for saf keeping if you start having problems getting it to work.

from Hopachi:
*Smile):
firefox tile pack.zip

 

You're welcome, no it doesn't, as the large and wide are reserved for UWP apps only.

 

Ah, that's a real bummer. Really would have wanted that. The editing apps in the Windows Store do make that possible. Is this the reason why it's only possible to create wide tiles if the editing app opens along with the app that you've editied its icon of?

 

I have never used it, so I couldn't say, sorry*Sad

 

No problem. Thank you very much for the help nonetheless.

Perhaps someone else knows a workaround to enable wide and large tiles for apps without having to launch the editing program every time I start the app?

 

Sorry for bothering again. I've been trying to make an icon but it just wouldn't work. Pinning and unpinning doesn't solve it either. Here's a screenshot of the files:





The .xml file looks like this:

<Application xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'>
<VisualElements
ShowNameOnSquare150x150Logo='on'
Square150x150Logo='Rayman2.png'
Square70x70Logo='Rayman2.png'
ForegroundText='light'
BackgroundColor='#5AADC8'/>
</Application>

The PNG file is 256x256 and 111kb.

What am I doing wrong here?

 

When you unpin, restart your pc to clear the cache, then repin.
If that doesn't do it, unpin, go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and delete the icon there, restart, then repin the .exe to start menu.

It(the icon can also be in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

 

Great, I'll try that. Thanks again for your help!

 

Your welcome*Smile

 

Yep!
That is by design made this way:

How to customize Start screen tiles for desktop apps (Windows Runtime apps) - Windows app development

 

*Ditto

Following my previous post:
The large tiles you make with editing apps from the store create live tiles that are allowed to be wide and large because they create those tiles in their name. And since those editing apps are real apps and no desktop exes, they are allowed to claim the extra space, playing by the rules. That's why they always have to open first, it's their tiles... Then they do the extra magic pointing to your non-store app, of course. *Smile

This may eventually change or evolve to a point where the tile starter app will be blazing fast-loading and practically invisible or non-splashy hidden at launch.
But as long as the rules remain the same, a pure hand-crafted tile for desktop apps is only allowed up to medium size.