Custom Windows 10 tiles for programs

Win10Tile is a free open source program for the Windows operating system that enables you to create and set custom tiles for any Windows 10 start menu program.

Microsoft brought the start menu back in Windows 10 which looks like a crossbreed between the Windows 7 start menu and the Windows 8 start screen interface.

The start menu displays desktop programs and apps in its interface, and offers customization options to display program or app tiles directly when it is opened.

All program or app links are only displayed as icons and not text. While you can change the size of tiles, there is no option to change their appearance easily.

Custom Windows 10 tiles

That's where Win10Tile comes into play. The program provides you with options to change most program icons displayed by the start menu of Windows 10.

The portable program has been published on the XDA Developers forum. Just download it and extract it to the system to get started.

You can run the program from any location, and will get an UAC prompt when you do which you need to confirm.

The program displays all start menu entries in a long list on start which is problematic from a usability point of view as search or filter options are missing.

The list is sorted alphabetically, but lists start menu programs from two different Windows locations one after the other. This means that you need to look for a program entry in two different locations.

Creation of custom Windows 10 tiles

The creation of custom Windows 10 tiles for programs is relatively easy:

1. Select the program you want to customize from the list of start menu items.
2. A click on "select image" opens a file browser to set the 150x150 tile icon for it, and the "select 70x70 image" does the same for 70x70 tile icons.
3. You may set a dark or light label for the icon, and select whether to show it.
4. A click on save applies the customization, and the changes should be visible right away when you open the start menu.

Please note that you don't need to select images with exact dimensions. The tile icons may look stretched or out of place though if the image resolution differs too much from the target resolution.

Win10Tile supports the creation of custom Windows 10 tiles for most programs but not all of them. Some use hardcoded tiles that you cannot modify. Additionally, the program does not support the creation of custom tiles for Windows Store applications.

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