I've got an old Visual Studio 6-made program, and when I install it on Windows 8, it has a default tile. Problem is, it's the smaller tile and the name of the program is too long to fit in comfortably, plus the icon is resized and looks bad.
Is there a way to create a custom Windows 8 tile that's got a different size and icon, without actually creating a specific Windows 8 program? I'd like to be able to do this with batch files as well if possible.
Metro apps in Windows 8 have the full experience of creating live tiles, secondary tiles, wide tiles, etc. Only Metro apps can customize their tiles, not desktop apps. The tile APIs exist only in WinRT for Metro apps.
For a desktop app like you have (the "old Visual Studio 6-made program" that is not Metro), you can try this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc144119(v=vs.85).aspx. Make sure to click on the other topics in the left sidebar too.
Edit:
This method can change the icon for older applications. Since the icon is what is used in the start menu, this is a way to give older apps a more attractive static icon in the new start menu.
Whilst live tiles are not supported for desktop applciations in Windows 8, you can improve the appearence of the icons by ensuring your Icon resource has sizes for 48px, 64px, 96px and 128px
To create the tile, right click on the executable (.exe, .com, .bat, etc), then left click on "Pin to Start".
To resize the tile, right click on the tile and select the size you want.
To move the tile, drag and drop to where you want it.
If you want to change the name, make a shortcut, change the shortcut name to what you want, then pin that to start.
Related
I am trying to set the icon of my application. I set the icon once before by changing the property of the form and the property of the project. Now I am trying to change the icon to a different one. The icons of the form and the application have been successfully changed, but when I copy the application to the desktop, the desktop icon still remains the previous one. Can anyone please tell me how to change the desktop icon?
Thanks,
Kai
If you change the icon properly on the form it should get visible in the Taskbar immediately as soon as you start your application.
However even if you did change the project icon properly and therefore your executable has the correct (new) icon (check that in your \bin-folder) you can get the wrong (old) icon from the desktop because you system might retrieve it from the icon cache.
Please check the following link to understand that topic and to see how you can enforce windows to renew its icon cache.
Win 7--: http://www.winability.com/repair-windows-desktop-icon-cache/
Win 8++: http://www.winability.com/how-to-erase-icon-thumbnail-cache-windows-8/
In Windows Phone 7/8 we had this handy Theme Resources like PhoneTextTitle1Style that would reflect the users selected Theme.
What is the equivalent in Windows Store apps?
A good way to find the styles that can apply to a control such as TextBlock is to select the control in the designer, go to the properties pane, click on the square next to the "Style" property, and choose the System Resource or Local Resource menus:
They are also documented and demonstrated in the Guidelines for label (or text block)'s XAML style gallery for Windows Store apps
These styles will reflect the app's current theme (dark or light) or high-contrast mode, but are not directly personalized by the user.
Windows doesn't expose the start screen background colour to apps. Windows Store apps are supposed to use their own branded colours and don't have anything analogous to Windows Phone's PhoneAccentBrush.
I trying to build a Windows Phone 8 Application which is able to sync data from a webservice.
While I'm syncing the data I want to display a little Popup / overlay / flyout but I still want to be able to navigate between my pages while my overlay persists between this pages.
I did this successfully with a Windows RT App: I simply added a Frame-Control on a RootPage which also display the flyout. I navigated then within this frame and the flyout was always there.
How can I achieve this goal within a Windows Phone 8 Application?
You can do it as you did on Windows8 which is to restyle the ``RootApplicationFrame to add your indicator. For an example see http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2011/07/creating-a-global-progressindicator-experience-using-the-windows-phone-7-1-sdk-beta-2/
Or you could just use the progress indicator in the system tray of the page to add indication there. This is probably the most common approach taken in apps. See how at http://blog.duc.as/2011/10/08/using-the-system-tray-to-show-progress-in-windows-phone-7-mango/
I have to create the same GUI(for Desktop Application) which has used in Avast -Version 7 for the "Left Menu Pane(Summary,Scan Computer, Real Time Shield) etc".
I tried it a lot Already and at last I am asking the name of control that has customized in a way where each tabs on very Left Pane has sub tab like "Summary tab" that listed down following Sub tabs On click
1)current Service
2)Cloud Service
3)Statistics and other Tab sub-option collapse automatically?
Will you please give me guideline in brief to achieve Such effect through WPF?
or If you have some other solution for such GUI than please also suggest.
It is just a left aligned Tabs, larger tabs comprise of following smaller tabs, as in WPF we can customize shape of controls.
Such GUI also has been deployed for Intel Graphics Control Panel(window 7 64 bit).
This kind of GUI is very advantageous, as it holds lots of information in simplest and easier manner for end user.
With windows 8, is it possible to create an application that is always visible? For instance, in previous versions of windows, there is the task bar with quick launch icons. Can I create something similar to the quick launch icons that are always on the screen?
If you are referring to a Windows 8 Store app then the answer is no. You can have a live tile and toast notifications that provides updates to the user which may cause the user to launch your application.
A good article to read to understand how your Windows Store apps will run on Windows 8 go here to learn about Application lifecycle (Windows Store apps). This will explain the App execution state.
It is not possible in the RT version, but the same is possible in the desktop version. If you have a desktop app, you can pin it to the taskbar. But any Window store app cannot be pinned to the taskbar. What you can do instead is move the app to the beginning of your Home screen, so anytime you click the Windows button your app will be visible right in front.
Do you mean always visible in the Star Menu screen? If so, you can add tile updating functionality to your application. As long as the user has the application pinned to the Start Menu, he would see the updates. Check the link below for an introductory tutorial.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsappdev/archive/2012/04/16/creating-a-great-tile-experience-part-1.aspx
"Quick Launch" has a very specific meaning, which you may or may not have been referring to in your question.
Below is the Quick Launch bar in Windows 8 - essentially a toolbar pointing to a location in your %AppData% directory. Prior to Windows 7 it was available by default, but the ability to now pin items directly to the taskbar rather supersedes it. Here's how you can restore Quick Launch if you really want to :)
It's, of course, available only in the Desktop mode and not on the Modern UI, where pinning a tile is the best you can hope for, and it's all up to the user to pin it AND to determine where it shows up on their Start Screen.
Another option worth mentioning (although more like system tray than quick launch) is lock screen presence. If the user chooses so and your app supports that, he can add it to his lock screen:
either as a a badge (up to 7 apps)
or as a tile notification (single app only)
This is not a way for the user to quickly start your app (other answers have already covered these options) but a way to stay visible and keep your user informed.