Custom "tiles" in Start 11 using Windows 10 style.

Hello,

I have forwarded your report to the Stardock support team for their review and recommendations.

Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

We really do appreciate your feedback, thanks.

Hello,

Same here...I miss my games live tiles

Thanks,

Patrick

Completely agree on that request.

That will be instant buy for me.   

Using the Trial Start11:  if I can't "group" like programs by stacking them into ONE tile, it's not going to be bought. When I try to do it, Start11 breaks, leaving a "ghost" link on the Desktop (requires logging out/in to clear) - a bug. AND, where is the FENCES integration that Start11 is supposed to have? Is it only for Fences 4?  And, add my vote for Live Tiles.

Quoting JustRevan, reply 3

Completely agree on that request.

That will be instant buy for me.   

End of JustRevan's quote

If you create a REG_SZ value called LoadTiles and give it a value of 1 at this location in the registry "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Stardock\Start8\Start8.ini\Start8"

then Start11 will attempt to load custom tile images (NOT live tiles).  Be aware this is experimental and you will need to sign out and in again.

Folder support is scheduled for v1.1

As for the issue you are encountering, it should not even let you try to drag one tile over another, the tile under it will automatically move out of the way.  If you have a repro case it would be useful as this is the first report we have ever had of anything like that.

Fences integration is having the fences contents show in the all programs list in Win7/Modern menus.  There is more planned for the future though for Win10/11 styles.

If I try to "drop" my Amazon Music tile onto my Groove Music tile after Groove Music has moved away, repeatedly, eventually an inert image of the Amazon Music tile gets stuck to my (Bling) desktop.  Without the ability to multi-app a tile, I may as well continue to use my desktop folders to collect apps of the same type; will Start11 v1.1 be out during the next 30 days (my Trial period)? Missing Fences integration for Win 10 style - feels like this should have been mentioned upfront.

Thank you!

That sounds interesting. I'll try it later, but what about actual application feature? Is it planned?

Ok, I've been experimenting with my old Windows 10 custom tiles and they work with the LoadTiles setting.

Everything looks pretty, but there is a gray border around each tile that looks redundant.

Is it possible to somehow remove it? Could you add such an option to the application?

Quoting JustRevan, reply 9

Ok, I've been experimenting with my old Windows 10 custom tiles and they work with the LoadTiles setting.

Everything looks pretty, but there is a gray border around each tile that looks redundant.

Is it possible to somehow remove it? Could you add such an option to the application?

End of JustRevan's quote

What tool did you use to create those?

The images should be sized to fill the space which makes me wonder if they have a transparent border around them for some reason?

What did they look like when on Win10?  Were they spaced the same but without the grey, or did the tiles fill the entire grey area too?

I used application MyTile: https://technastic.com/mytile-lets-create-custom-windows-10-tiles/

This application allows you to attach pictures to every shortcut or application. There was a little problem with applications: if they are in the same folder, attaching a picture to an application make this picture being used for all other shortcuts or applications inside this folder. So, I make a workaround:

1) I have created folder, where all my shortcuts will be stationed;

2) I have created a folder inside that folder for every shortcut I want to add to start menu;

3) In each individual folder I have created a .bat file for every application with simple command:

start /B "Anydesk" "C:\Program Files (x86)\AnyDesk\AnyDesk.exe"

In this example I start Anydesk app from it's program folder;

4) I have created a folder named "Custom Tiles" inside "Programs" which resides here: "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\"

5) Finally, I have created a shortcut for every .bat file I have created and moved this shortcuts to "Custom Tiles" folder;

Now I was ready. I can pin shortcuts from "Custom Tiles" to Start menu and I can use MyTile application to pin pictures to shortcuts (in reality, pictures will be created in individual folders from 2) ).

Final part was to find nice pictures for every application. It was a long process, but I have created pictures for every single application myself. For this I used photoshop, black and white pictures of application icons from google and some big picture also found on google.

Main folder from 1) look like this:

Individual folder from 2) look like this (.xml and .png files was created by MyTile):

"Custom Tiles" folder from 4) look like this:

It was a complicated process, but that wort every hour spent.

That makes me think, that something can be wrong with pictures created by MyTile, buy they looked great on Windows 10.

They filled tile completely. In my old Windows 10 system it looked like this:

Each picture's size are 270x270 pixels, so, maybe, I need to resize all this pictures now, but in Space10 all pictures are 100x100 pixels.

I think I see whats up.

You have set Start11 to use larger icons than normal under the Win10 menu settings.  If you set the shortcut icons should be sized setting back to medium things will fill the space correctly.

We will resolve that for future updates, thanks for letting us know.

I do like the look of Just Revans Tiles! It kind of reminds me of the "custom grid tile background" on modern theme only with a few more background images added in. Is there any chance of bringing that feature that is a part of modern theme over to the windows 10 theme? I also miss the ability to adjust the tiles transparency.

Hey, you are correct!

I changed icon size to "Medium" and now they looks great!

But, of course, it will be even better, if that will be fixed for large icons

Hello,

How to specify which custom image for each shortcut?

Some shortcuts are great, but some don't have medium size icons:

Thanks and regards,

Patrick

I've looked on the start screen and have another idea, what can be done:

I marked the area that is not occupied by anything. Tiles cannot be placed here, so the space remains empty.

It would be great if it was possible to increase the space for the tiles so that when using the number of tiles specified in the settings, this space is also occupied by the already placed tiles. That is, stretch already placed tiles to the right edge of the menu.

Where does it look for the custom tile\image?  I made this change but I do not see a change icon\tile any where.

I too, would love to have better image control of tiles. This feature is what makes the menu fun and personal.

To my surprise, Start11 used the custom tile I had for Notepad++. In the Notepad++ folder I have:

• 2 pngs
• notepad++.visualelementsmanifest.xml

Now I'm trying to do the same for Adobe Photoshop Elements 2019 and it is not working.

My suggestions in order of preference
- right-click a tile and have a menu to select a png file for display

- implement the Win10 XML file (which worked for one program so far)

It should be loading up the win 10 XML but it is possible there is some glitch somewhere stopping it working.

You would certainly need to refresh things if you added a custom one perhaps even sign out / in as 1.01 does not have a refresh icons option so once an icon is found it will be used.

Not only does it work now but I discovered that I can select a graphic for a tile. Awesome software.