Pin Anything to Windows 8's start page

While it is possible to pin different items to Windows 8's start page, installed desktop programs and websites come to mind, it is not possible by default to pin files to it.

And the items that you can add to the start page can't really be modified when it comes to their appearance. Selecting a different button or background color is for instance not something that you can do by default.

If you want more control over files and programs pinned to the start screen and how those links look like, you may want to give Pin Anything a try.

Update: Pin Anything is no longer available. It appears that there are not any alternatives available that you might use instead.

The Windows Store application provides you with the means to pin files, Steam games and websites to the start page and select how these new links look like on that page.

If you select files, you are asked to pick a file from the local system and give it a title. Then you have to select one or two logos, one wide and one small, for the icon that you will then see on the start page of the operating system. If you pick a wide logo first, you can use part of it for the small icon as well. If you want, you can pick a completely different image for the smaller logo.

You can furthermore select whether you want the title to be displayed on the icon and if the wide logo's text should be dark. Last but not least it is possible to select a background color for both versions of the icon.

Pinning a website works in exactly the same way with the only difference that you need to add a website address instead of picking a file.

The Steam option asks for a user's Steam ID. Note that it needs to be public for this to work. You are then presented with the list of games owned to select the ones that you want to pin to the start menu.

Images are automatically taken from Steam with the option to make the same configuration changes that the two other pinning options provide you with.

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