How to customize Start Menu tiles?

[Mark Szabo]

I know that with the PWA appx package generator (using Visual Studio) you can customize how the tile should look like in the Start Menu.

Now that Edge (Chromium) supports one-click PWA installation from the url bar, how is the same possible without the appx package generation?

(left one is the VS generated, installed from the Store tile; right one is the Edge url bar installed version of the same app - I'd like to make the right one look like the left one)

[#2]

@Mark Szabo 

Here is what you're looking for:

1. download this open-source free tool, TitelCoinifier from Github

2. it's portable so just double click and run it as admin.

3. this tool is Exactly made for changing PWA, custom links, custom pinned programs on start menu, so for example if you have both Twitter app (installed from Win Store) and Twitter PWA app on start menu, this tool only shows you the PWA version when you type the App's name in its search area.

4. select your PWA app, then double click on icon area to select an .ico file.

P.S you can download .ico files from Internet, just type "download ico file for Carwash app"

or you can make your own ico file, then you need to covert normal PNG/JPEG file to ico. Photoshop doesn't do it by default, it needs a free plugin which you can get from here

or use online sites like this

you can't access the ico file of the installed Windows store app, those files are restricted and locked by the system, changing folder permissions mess things up later.

5. after you select your ico file, use the Sliders to make the icons look bigger and fit.

you can press this button here to auto-resize the icon for you.

6. once you're satisfied with the size, click on "Tile Iconify!" button and you're done.

Before:

After:

[#3]

@HotCakeX sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm the developer of this app and I'd like to make sure that the users see the same tile when they install it by clicking the install button in the url bar. So your solution will not help sadly.

[#4]

Have you tried it on other browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox? does the icon still look small when pinned through those browsers or is it only happening when pinned through the new Edge insider?

[#5]

@Mark Szabo can you send the URL for the PWA you've created? I'd like to verify a couple things with it, but my expectation is that this would work the same, so this may be a bug...

[#6]

@johnjansen sure: https://aka.ms/carwash

Please keep in mind that you'll need to sign in with a Microsoft corp account (@microsoft.com) or else the app won't be displayed.

[#7]

@Mark Szabo it looks like you are explicitly using the circle icon for your tile as described in the manifest.json file. What I think you want to do is grab the icon files from the previous PWA and put them in your images folder and then put that new image into the manifest file. Does that make sense? I may not be describing it well...

[#8]

@johnjansen yeah, it absolutelly makes sense, the issue is that it will change on Android and iOS as well, where the circle icon is the one the users expect. So I'm searching for a way to modify only the windows tile's appearance.

[#9]

@Mark Szabo I have the same issue and requirement.  Have you found a solution?

[#10]

@Graymatter no, as far as I understand this is not possible. You can have a nice Android design OR a nice Start menu tile, but not both.

[#11]

@HotCakeX I love how community solve a lot of Windows Issue since MS Does not care about community feedbacks and UX or UI 🙂

[#12]

They do care, but if you see a bug or problem you should report it using feedback button on Edge. that's the primary way Edge developers use to track problem.
they've said that countless times in the forum.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/problem-with-pwa-icons-on-start-menu-on-edge-dev/...

[#13]

@HotCakeX  and @Isuke2005 that's right: the best way to provide feedback directly to the team at Microsoft is to file feedback via the app. We can get diagnostics and screenshots, etc. There is some good data on why this is so tough here: Adaptive icon support in PWAs with maskable icons (web.dev)

If you're the dev building the PWA, you can also choose to send multiple different manifests depending on the platform. 

It's really quite surprising how complex the tiles and icons are. We have different ways of showing icons in the taskbar, in the Start "flyout", in the list of programs on Start, in Search results, on the desktop. Many times, we are only given one icon in the manifest, and it's meant to work on Android, but has not been tested on Windows because PWAs on Windows is relatively new.

Please do keep the feedback coming. We are working in this area right now and hoping that the experience keeps improving.

-John 

[#14]

@johnjansen and @HotCakeX  

Sorry but they don't.
Examples: 
- Explorer tabs + no one care File Explorer tabs in version 1809 - Microsoft Community,
they tell you to use some other software
- Accent letters+ they tell you to instal different keyboard layout and use it or search for charmap and copy and paste accent letters.
- Few years ago (when surface comes out) I bought one, I reported multiple errors with UI, they did not fix any, I attached all info needed. 
- Laggy animations, even fresh install with Ryzen 2700x, GTX 1080ti, 16 gig ram can lag animations in system, somehow hackintosh on crappy laptop dont have this problem somehow,

- I was repporting A LOT OF issues for UI (I'm picky about UI crap) and they are still in sytem, no one care
- UI is just outdated, thankfully thare are great community themes that are great.
- Phone app - I'm just not gonna talk about it how bad it is.

... and many many more.


Sorry but im just tried of fighting with Windows, I no longer report issues, since no replays no fixex for those.
At least we have great community that fix bunch of those issues by custom apps, maybe some day Win will be open source so people can fix this pile of issues 🙂

[#15]

@Isuke2005 

Spoiler

---

@Isuke2005 wrote:

@johnjansen and @HotCakeX  

Sorry but they don't.
Examples: 
- Explorer tabs + no one care File Explorer tabs in version 1809 - Microsoft Community,
they tell you to use some other software
- Accent letters+ they tell you to instal different keyboard layout and use it or search for charmap and copy and paste accent letters.
- Few years ago (when surface comes out) I bought one, I reported multiple errors with UI, they did not fix any, I attached all info needed. 
- Laggy animations, even fresh install with Ryzen 2700x, GTX 1080ti, 16 gig ram can lag animations in system, somehow hackintosh on crappy laptop dont have this problem somehow,

- I was repporting A LOT OF issues for UI (I'm picky about UI crap) and they are still in sytem, no one care
- UI is just outdated, thankfully thare are great community themes that are great.
- Phone app - I'm just not gonna talk about it how bad it is.

... and many many more.


Sorry but im just tried of fighting with Windows, I no longer report issues, since no replays no fixex for those.
At least we have great community that fix bunch of those issues by custom apps, maybe some day Win will be open source so people can fix this pile of issues 🙂

---

I can give you a bigger list of problems about Mac, Ubuntu etc.

not related to this topic but just want to say that things like explorer tab takes time, Windows team are coordinated with other teams of Microsoft products, we don't know the full story that what's coming in the future.

each of your individual problems must have their own topic, with clear examples and explanation.

I use Intel 630 integrated graphic; I can play games and still don't notice any animation issue in Windows.

there are a lot to talk about each of the things you mentioned above. if you want, go to Windows 10 community hub and open separate topics.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-10/ct-p/Windows10

[#16]

@HotCakeX 
Sorry I hurt you're feelings about Windows, I also never said other systems are bugless.
Please tell me your device name Im going to buy it, it sounds great!
-  since click to full screen or to back from full screen e.g youtube  does not give you ever any sign of drop from 60pfs, resizing browser window e.g this thread not cause any issues on side of browser, ofc with only intergrated GPU as you said. Or no lag at all, when you open 3 random tabs in MS Edge and click and hold and drag quickly one tab and move around on the screen. Also for sure Win + tab is flawless no drop from 60 fps or 30 ... with this device, and ofc open something in bg, since WIN + TAB is pointless to use without anything running in background jsut explorer and browser with maybe this thread 🙂 

[#17]

The "Start Menu" sucks now. Why can't Microsoft just be normal and use an actual Start Menu.
Maybe the creator of Classic Shell would be willing to sell it to you.
The start menu is so hosed, it can't even find proper programs on computers. It tries to pull up items from Downloads.
Maybe Microsoft Engineers are lazy but most people who work for a living need a reliable Start Menu.