Tile

A simple Windows 10 utility to customize the start menu tiles.

QuickStart

• Download the latest release
• Extract the archive
• Launch Tile.exe and follow the instructions

About

Tile automatically looks for applications in the start menu and generates custom tile assets for these applications. Then, you only need to pin the programs you want on the start menu and their tile will have a custom look.

Tile doesn't modify your start menu: no tile will be added and the layout will be preserved. Custom assets are generated for supported applications using Windows built-in Tile customization mechanism (Tile is just an automation tool to make things easier). When you will pin these applications on the start menu, they will automatically have a custom tile.

Features

Main features

• Look for applications shortcuts in the start menu
• Locate target executable files
• Dynamically generate tiles for these applications

Supported applications

Many applications are supported without any additional setup.

Open TilesConfiguration.json file to get all supported applications

Customization

About customization

A tile is generated using an icon and a configuration. A configuration file is provided in the application by default.

This configuration can be customized by creating a tiles.json file next to Tile.exe that will override the default one.

Sample configuration

{
  "VLC Media Player": {
    "ShortcutRegex": "^VLC media player$",
    "IconPath": "Icons/VLC.png",
    "BackgroundColor": "#FF7900",
    "ForegroundText": "Light",
    "ShowNameOnMediumTile": true,
    "GenerationMode": "Adjusted"
  }
}

Configuration specification

Field	Description
ShortcutRegex	A regex to find the application shortcut
IconPath	Path to the icon (can be relative to Tile.exe directory)
BackgroundColor	Tile background color (in hexadecimal format: #FFFFFF)
ForegroundText	Foreground text color (only Light or Dark)
ShowNameOnMediumTile	Show the application name on the medium tile or not
GenerationMode	The generation mode

Shortcuts locations

To customize directories where application shortcuts can be found, create a settings.json file next to Tile.exe with the following content:

{
  "ShortcutsLocations": [
    "C:\\Absolute\\Path\\To\\Directory\\Containing\\Shortcuts"
  ]
}

Tasks

• Features
  • Add new tiles presets
  • Improve error handling
  • Improve tiles configuration reload (live reload?)
  • Make tiles easier to customize
• Release, packaging & documentation
  • Improve the release process (bump version number...)
  • Merge all .dll into a single .exe file
  • Improve README.md
    • Add a FAQ/troubleshoot section
    • Add a How it works section
    • Add a contribution guide

License

Tile is licensed under the GNU General Public License.