Sorry Microsoft, I have no use for Live Tiles
Microsoft introduced Live Tiles to Windows Phone and brought the feature over to the desktop when it launched the Windows 8 operating systems.
Live Tiles have not changed much in Windows 10, but a couple of new options like new tile sizes were added nevertheless.
Apart from functioning as a link to a an item, a program or app for instance, live tiles may display and update information directly.
Probably the most common examples are tiles that display weather information or news.
Information may use the full height and width of the tile area, and even multiple pages to display information to the user.
No use for Live Tiles
When I state that I have no use for live tiles, I mean specifically on the desktop. I can see them having uses on tablets or mobile phones, but on the desktop, they are nearly useless in their current form.
First, on Windows 10, they are only displayed in the start menu which I started to use less and less ever since Windows 7 came along and introduced taskbar pinning.
When I open the start menu, I have a specific task in mind and don't pay attention to these tiles because of that. Either I start typing a program name or search term right away, or I do something else and Live Tiles are more of a distraction than anything that I want displayed at that point in time.
That's one of the reasons why I have removed all those default tiles the Windows 10 operating system ships with as I have no use for them.
In addition to that, I don't really use apps on the Windows 10 desktop as I have yet to find some that help me do things that desktop programs or web services cannot.
To sum it up:
- The location live tiles are placed in is far from ideal. While you can switch to a Windows 8 start screen like interface to make them display all the time, it makes little sense doing so on desktop systems in my opinion.
- The information provided by these live tiles is something that I don't find useful.
The future
Microsoft announced recently that a few surprises are coming to live tiles and toast notifications on Windows 10, and that it will reveal what is in store during the Build 2016 Developer Conference which is held in San Francisco from March 30 to April 1.
The description of the session on the channel 9 website highlights that "two highly-requested surprises" are coming to Live Tiles.
The Live Tile suggestions that have received the most upvotes in the Windows Feedback application are transparent tiles and interactive tiles.
Microsoft revealed interactive tiles back in 2014 but has not launched the feature yet and it was generally assumed that the company decided against implementing it.
Basically, what they do is add an interactive element to live tiles, for instance an option to expand the view area of a tile to display additional information, or a field that you can use to find information or files directly from the live tile.
Even with these changes, and it is not clear if those are the ones that Microsoft will reveal, it won't really change my view of live tiles on the desktop.
Live tiles could become more attractive to users if Microsoft would untie them from the start menu allowing users to place them on the desktop directly.
This would then be similar to how desktop gadgets worked back in the days when they were still supported by Windows natively.
While that would certainly improve the appeal of live tiles, it would not make me use them.
Now You: What's your take on Live Tiles?
I hate these fugly hideous tiles. They do not look modern to me at all. Tiles was the reason I switched to apple and gave my HP to a poor student who will now suffer the same migraines I did. I pity the kid who got it. I couldn’t even type a paper on there.
I hate tiles! Tiles, like alphabet blocks, are for kids. Adults don’t need shiny, brightly colored, flashing things to keep them happy. I use Classic Shell and never see them. Windows 7 had the last, best user interface. I would rather see this:
https://gyazo.com/5a33443a5182d1825ba31263ed3c5684
than this:
https://gyazo.com/26c6e62bbc52e0e6ecff7635f3b57566
I disagree. I prefer the second one!!! Overall, I much prefer the style of Windows 10 compared with Windows 7.
I think a command line live tile could be useful, but that’s about it. Actually, just sticking an expanding command line on the taskbar would be pretty cool. Gadgets/live tiles like clocks and weather should be on the desktop (and easy to turn off).
I don’t do 10.
Agreed. My workaround is to just make 2 folders for Desktop shortcuts used less & Photo Prgs for less used ones there.
Most used shortcuts are just displayed across desktop with very most used at bottom to act like a big taskbar. Unlike old days that icon load doesn’t slow down PC w/ Windows 10.
no live tiles here either….but i have used start menu x for quite some time..gives you plenty of room for all apps and is very customizable. i love when contributers here mention what programs they use as many i have never heard of. then i can look into them and have found some gems. thanks again martin. always first class.
Seems like a lot of hoopla over nothing. I use Live Tiles at times, it’s not that big of a deal is it? Let’s get on with our lives..
I have tried Windows 10 and the live tiles didn’t impress me very much as is the case with Windows 10 itself : I am still with Windows 7 and that will be till 2020.
I think that Microsoft is on a wrong path actually by putting so much things in their OS that do not really belong to a real BASIC OS.
I think that they should create such a BASIC OS with nothing more in it and all the rest should be conceived as addons that everybody would use to personalize their OS with additional functions.
They should also conceive their BASIC OS in such a way that all the softwares we use should be portable sofwares that would need to be put on a different partion than the partion on which the OS resides : when we would reinstall the OS from scratch we would not have to reinstall all the softwares as would be the case also when we restore an old OS image.
I also think that the OS would be better protected this way as it would leave outside itself all which is not really part of itself.
> They should also conceive their BASIC OS in such a way that all the softwares we use should be portable sofwares that would need to be put on a different partion than the partion on which the OS resides : when we would reinstall the OS from scratch we would not have to reinstall all the softwares as would be the case also when we restore an old OS image.
I’ve been asking for this for 20 years, because the task of installing all your pre-existing software on a new machine and setting up the options within each program is a complete waste of time. There should be a clear distinction between:
A. Settings within a program
B. Shell integration of this program – for example, adding it to the Start Menu or Context Menu (right-click) in the Explorer
The advantage of portable programs is that all the settings from category A stay the same when you copy them to a new machine. This mechanism should be used for all the programs, it should have been the standard for at least the last 20 years. When will Microsoft finally comprehend this?
The only thing that needs a re-install on a new machine is category B. But Microsoft doesn’t seem to comprehend the necessity to distinguish between A and B.
I totally agree with you Steven, but things are like they are and we really can’t do anything to make Microsoft’s people change their mind.
However there is a way to resolve a part of this problem. I have found a special software which is very handy when you have to reinstall a lot of softwares and don’t want to calibrate again all their settings. The name of this software is CloneApp and you will find it at this place :
http://www.mirinsoft.com/index.php/download/viewdownload/39-cloneapp/180-cloneapp-portable
Here is what we can read about this software on that site : “CloneApp enables easy backup of all your app settings from Windows directories and Registry. A fresh re-install always makes Windows much faster but that means you lose all your program settings. CloneApp will Backup all your App settings from Windows’ directories and the Registry, and only those you really need.”.
The conceptor of this software created it specifically for this particular use, but you may use it to backup and restore any file, folder or registry key of your choice. All you have to do is to create by yourself the “Plug-ins” you need.
To get more information about this software, just go to it’s forum :
http://www.mirinsoft.com/index.php/forum/cloneapp-discussion
There you will find a couple of topics I have created about it that should be helpful to you.
Windows has become a small part of their revenue that they don’t care about customer needs anymore. But it will come back and bite them in the butt. Windows is the foundation of their other revenue streams. Ppl switching to Linux/Apple means they lose revenue on services for the Windows environment, but they’re too blind to see it.
I never understood all the hate towards Windows 8 and a separate Start screen with tiles. I like how they serve as a dashboard for Calendar and Mail. Guess it makes more sense on mobile/tablets, but the laptop option still works fine for me. Except it doesn’t look as good in Win10. A “separate dashboard” approach was better as it isolated all your work environment and transported you to the dashboard to check what’s new.
IMO it wasn’t hate towards a separate Start screen with tiles, it was hate towards Microsoft attempting to shoehorn what amounted to a fairly good mobile OS into a desktop OS, both the mobile and desktop sides of the OS suffered to a greater or lesser extent because of that. Microsoft made the same mistake that most people made and thought people didn’t like a separate Start screen with tiles and didn’t like them removing the startmenu so they attempted to fix things with Windows 10.
Sadly Microsoft didn’t learn the real lessons from Windows 8 IMO, they’re still trying to mash together a mobile OS with a desktop OS and they’ve failed to understand that the majority of people use those devices for very different purposes.
You’re right there. Personally, I’m looking forward to Android. Maybe it has more chances to become a great desktop OS than Windows a mobile one.
Microsoft is bringing Apple’s 3D Touch to Windows 10 Tiles ?
Hate, hate, hate them. Useless and distracting. Before installing classic shell, I remove the tiles Microsoft clearly believes I need to see at all times. Xbox, Minecraft, Candy Crush or whatever game it is, The advertisement to purchase Office and of course the one informing me solitaire is no longer free but can be purchased….. Its SO irritating.
Next, I remove Edge and Cortana completely and restore the run box back to the menu. Seems Cortana takes that with her when you uninstall
After that, a tiptoe through all the security settings that are defaulted to the on position and once it stops “Getting to know me” I’m somewhat satisfied with the result. Still learning and adding new procedures to make it more mine than microsoft’s. Now if I could just stop it from saying HI during load up, that would be very nice!
I like the Live Tiles. I use a Surface Pro 3 so I find them very useful in tablet mode. For desktop use (when my SP3 is connected to my external monitor), I would welcome the ability to undock them from the Start menu and have them work more like interactive gadgets. So I’m looking forward to Microsoft’s announcements at Build.
If rumors are to be believed Microsoft are going to announce “interactive” live tiles at build, although it’s beyond me what use an “interactive” live tiles would have.
I entirely agree with the opening post, and not only do I have no use for Live Tiles, but also I don’t have any use for any Tiles.
I never have had any use for Windows tiles. I thought that they were part of the failed Windows 8 experiment, and I don’t understand why MS seems to continue to want to ram tiles onto our desktop and into our eyeballs.
I started using the Classic Start Menu shell in Win8 and I continue using it now that I have upgraded to Win10-64 Pro – on all the PCs that I support for my users.
Classic Shell: http://www.classicshell.net/
– it’s an ergonomic godsend for any Windows PC user.
With Classic Shell, the user rarely sees or has to remove tiles from their view. The user simply forgets the tiles even exist.
If I’m not mistaken, the conventional Explorer shell on Windows is eventually going bye-bye (Explorer is the regular desktop part of Windows that we all know (opposite of Metro/UWP). My understanding is that Windows we be all UWP eventually. That’s why Microsoft is pushing it.
i use StartIsBack . I also have no use of the tiles.
While they may not be perfect, I like the live tiles in Win 10. Grouped together in the start menu keeps them off my desktop and out of the way until I need them and when I do need them it’s just a press of a button and they’re all there. I find that a quick glance at the weather, my calendar, a couple of major news headlines, etc. provide a good preview of the day ahead. Interactive tiles have the potential to improve this a bit if for example they give the ability to quickly cycle through the items in the tile instead of waiting for them to cycle on their own.
I can see that the live tiles are not for everyone, but some of the complaints here seem silly. If you don’t like them you don’t have to use them, they’re very easy to turn off. They don’t really clutter your desktop because they stay hidden in the start menu until you open it. Just because you personally may not find the information useful doesn’t mean that none of the hundred million plus other users don’t.
I liked the title of this article.
I believe that on windows OS, having the desktop is a old, if not obsolete feature. since windows introduced the start menu the desktop became useless, at least for me.
I have use windows 7 to 10, passing by 8 and 8.1. when I used W10 I was not using desktop at all: start menu is more beautiful and more useful for me. start menu and desktop, for the majority of the people, are used for almost the same thing… why not remove the start menu, combine all it’s features into desktop so that windows could become a little bit like android for example? instead of a task bar why not a notification bar?
actually there is already a OS like that: Remix OS. combines all the good features from android and Windows into one OS.
It appears from Wikipedia that Remix OS is discontinued. I see that the website is live, but still, isn’t that more of Mobile OS as well? In other words, why would anyone who hates Metro, UWP, and Live Tiles in Windows – like Remix OS? Isn’t that just more of the same?
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/remix-os-dev-focused-on-enterprise/
Start Menu has been around since Windows 95, so you’re saying the desktop has been useless since the early 90s?
“why not remove the start menu, combine all it’s features into desktop so that windows could become a little bit like android for example?”
Android has a “start menu”, it’s the default Menu button. Even in Remix OS, it has a “start menu”.
Productivity wise, removing the task bar would be a hindrance since the notification bar is meant for just that: notifications. Windows already has that in the lower right-hand corner (more so in Windows 10).
In Android, you cannot switch between programs using the notification bar. Even Remix OS has a task bar (where you can pin programs) and a notification menu.
To be quite honest, Remix OS is just basically a Java version of a Windows. This isn’t exactly a bad thing but Java has a lot of security problems.
Another up vote for windows 10. I had unsolvable driver issues on 2 pcs when I did a clean install, but both worked fine after simply allowing microsoft to update them to W10. Caveat: for the sake of privacy and performance, check custom installation when offered and uncheck every option that compromises privacy, then use Spybot Anti-Beacon and W10privacy to control telemetry and automatic updates.
Re the post: No, I don’t have any use for live tiles either. However, by pinning desktop apps to the start menu, then resizing them to small, there is room in the start menu for all of the apps I use, whereas classic shell and start10 menus don’t have enough space available to get all of my apps in the start menu. This allows me to unclutter my desktop. The down side of this is that the right click drop down menu is mostly gone, but that functionality remains on the W10 taskbar, so the 3 programs I use where the right click menu is useful are pinned there. This, in conjunction with the W10 quick access feature allowing folders to be pinned there, allows me to navigate around my pc just as well as I could using start10, if not slightly better.
W10 boots slower until implementing the apps mentioned above, then boot time is roughly the same as before updating from 8.1. My pcs are more responsive since moving to W10, almost as if I had upgraded my cpu or hard drive to faster versions. Neither machine is older than 3 years, so those with older machines may encounter problems that I haven’t.
I am planning on switching to Android (Xiaomi Mi5 soon) from Lumia WP, and the Live Tiles is the only thing i am going to miss, Its so good on a phone, you can skim through a lot of info and news without having to touch anything on the screen or launch anything. Its such an excellent and elegant UX.
What live tiles? I use Classic Shell on Windows 10. I never see them. Except for the interface and privacy concerns, Win10 is great. Classic Shell gives me the interface I want. Ashampoo AntiSpy (free) gives me the privacy I want. All my pcs are Win10 now. No complaints.
“What’s your take on Live Tiles?”
Pretty much the same as yours. I use two live tiles and that’s Email and Calendar. Email displays the number of new emails and calendar shows upcoming calendar events.
Other than them, I have all my live tiles turned off as I find things flashing and constantly changing extremely irritating. However, with a good notification centre I probably wouldn’t even use those two. As it stands I think the Windows 10 Notification Centre needs to be more prominent for missed notifications than just having an icon on the taskbar that changes colour (as it’s too easily missed, especially with an auto-hide taskbar). And also the notifications are way too unreliable, I often find I have a new email sat in the inbox that the notification centre didn’t tell me about.
Desktop tile colours aren’t too bad anymore, but the colours on Windows Phone tiles annoy me. Most of the built-in tiles are theme coloured, but some like OneNote, Office apps, Dual SIM Phone/Messaging tiles, etc. are coloured and the colours can’t be changed to match your theme, which is just stupid and annoying. Not to mention the Store one that magically keeps changing to a live tile even though it’s turned off.
But, generally live tiles aren’t such a problem. Those who do like them can use them, those who don’t really have a use for them can just switch live tiles off.
I agree 100%. No Live Tiles for me. It doesn’t matter if the Tiles explode, glimmer, shine, dance or give you an orgasm. I have stopped trusting anything related to the Start Menu from Microsoft. I will use Classic Shell for long as it works. They steadily improve it every few months without taking back huge steps in functionality.
I’ve never seen these tiles as I stopped upgrading Windows at Win7. However, from what I’ve read and seen in various screenshots, it’s highly unlikely that I’d want them because I prefer a very clean desktop. No tiles for me, even in my file-manager and browser windows. I enjoy having as much control over my computers (desktops and smart-phones) as possible and don’t appreciate any company that continually tries to convince me all these things I don’t want are actually a service to me.
MS really should consider releasing a “Win10-lite” version that comes with just the meat of the OS and leaves out all the advertising and tracking mechanisms. I might even be willing to pay for that, but it’s doubtful that I’d do so before the general public has had ample time to dig deeply into it to make sure that it’s truly trustworthy.
Thanks for the article, Martin! :)
“Win10-lite” would ruin what they’re trying to do: monetize off of users and make it easier to push updates. (not saying I wouldn’t be all for it tho lol)
Tho if you don’t like “tracking mechanisms” then you’ll be hard luck to find a Windows program that doesn’t call home from time-to-time. It’s even worse if you surf on the web.
Well they’ve developed a special government-approved version of Windows 10 called “Zhuangongban” that doesn’t have all the same consumer apps and services that come with normal Windows 10 and it’s equipped with additional device management and security controls.
If they’re willing to develop a special edition for China you never know what may happen.
Thanks for your input. Microsoft has always provided multiple ways of doing things, some of which some people find useful some not so much. Live Tiles falls into this category. Don’t like ’em, don’t use ’em.
Tiles just emphasize that Microsoft’s “one size fits all” strategy is simply wrong. I don’t want my desktop OS to be cluttered with irrelevant junk. The OS should be just an inconspicuous mechanism for launching the really important things, namely the applications.
Of course MS doesn’t like being inconspicuous so they keep adding unnecessary, gaudy features (e.g. the ribbon) they think will attract users to their latest offerings.
so, apps which live tiles i use:
weather (smallest tile, just to show the temperature);
trakter (trakt.tv app, shows when new series are out, thanks to this tile i kinda remembered that something is usually out on thursday, something on friday..etc).
cast shows amount of unlistened episodes (podcasts app);
i pin some music albums to not to forget about them, for example, or to remind myself to re/listen something in a day or two.
what it looks like:
http://i.imgur.com/5b3OeqW.png
many of people writes that they are hating new metro start screen, or have no use of universal apps; that’s fine, if it’s not for you, that’s probably for users like me;
i’m using quite a lot of uwp apps (mytube, unstream, colibri, groove music, nextgen reader, metro commander, ouga for tumblr, trakter, readit).
I use ccleaner’s uninstall function to remove things that came “preinstalled” on windows 10
How well does that work to remove this preinstalled junk? What else have you cut from Win10 with ccleaner?
Everything except Calculator, and it does that very well
No Tiles usage, here, too.
“Live Tile” feature may not be very useful, except for Weather and News apps (which are not bad in my opinion).
If you don’t like “Live Tiles” preview, you can simply disable it with a right-click.
I think the main advantage of these apps is not in being “dynamic”, but rather in being “universal” (i.e. they can be used across different Windows 10 platforms).
I use every “device” I own differently. And, so far, I’ve seen very few, if any, “Unversal” apps that merit running on anything I own.
Microsfot started to do everything wrong
– Gatgets were brilliant (location and usage)
– They tried to remove Start menu (big mistake)
– They force users to use windows 10 (another big mistake)
– Telemetry
… Usw , Hey Microsoft you should learn one thing you can not kill two birds with one stone
(One Os for desktop and Mobile devices)
what do you use start menu for anyway? mine is like this since I installed windows 7: https://gyazo.com/bdf92597e9dbaf1605e423c3f5347d9c . yes, blank…
that blank space and desktop are the same for me. the only use I have for the start menu is to shut down the computer or access my user folder… WHICH you were able to access anyway on the new brand start menu microsoft did for windows 8 and 8.1…
for me the traditional start menu is useless and should “die”… keep only the desktop and replace the task bar for a notification bar like android…
oh, someone did it already: remix OS… my bad…
Obviously how someone uses their startmenu is highly personal and i wouldn’t pretend to tell someone how it should or shouldn’t be used but for me, personally, i use the startmenu for infrequent but no less important programs/features such as running Windows update, add/remove programs, and anything else from the control panel as i have that as a cascading menu on the startmenu, I’ve also pinned a short cut to the command prompt, registry editor, Steam, and the monitor switch shortcut.
That’s what used to be so good about Windows, the ability to customise it to each persons preferred way of doing things, something that seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years.
I dislike having anything on my desktop. The last thing I want are little flashing tiles to distract me.
Beyond that, tiles are a mechanism for putting content in front of a user. Microsoft’s choice of content reflects the disconnect between its corporate sense of what consumers want and what consumers actually want. That disconnect is reflected more broadly in the design of Windows and other Microsoft products.
As for weather… My weather does not change minute by minute. I’m in the U.S., so I check the local weather in the morning at a noaa.gov site. Most locations have their own counterpart sites. I don’t need to know the temperature minute by minute.
Besides, tiles are a great place to display ads users can’t block.
I agree with you. I hide my desktop icons and use the desktop toolbar in Windows 7 and 10. I prefer to not have my background picture obscured by icons or gadgets or live tiles. My most used programs are pinned to the taskbar and all others are on my desktop toolbar. I’ve had a few customers switch to this cleaner looking method after seeing one of our PC’s in use. So. I will indeed be surprised if Microsoft’s “surprise” is something that I like and find useful.
Joncor “Besides, tiles are a great place to display ads users can’t block.”
Is precisely what I thought the first time I saw these. What a ‘wonderful’ way to get your ads across a million people asap and at the users expense. I see it as a precursor to using ‘enhancing a users experience’ with relative ads.
On my dual monitor desktop, my start menu is always open upon logging on (from power on or wake) annoys the (expletive) out of me and have yet to figure out how to prevent it. Doesn’t happen on my lappy
I totally agree with your view on tiles, can you suggest me a way to make them disappear?
@ Doc
As Andy says, use Classic Shell. You will find it at http://www.classicshell.net
I never see them because I use the excellent Classic Shell program.
They would be of more use on a Desktop as in the old Vista Sidebar Gadgets.
On a tablet and a phone they’re fantastic. Far better than static icons with number overlays that look like a Desktop PC littered with shortcut icons from the 90’s.
I said the same thing on another forum when Windows 8 introduced live tiles, that they’d work better if they where on the desktop.
I just wiped them off as I dont even want to see them ugly and horrible
I also have no use of the tiles. I wish there was a way to remove them and restore the more functional start menu like it was before.
In Windows 10, they can be removed from the start menu by just unpinning
That’s until Microsoft adds them back again by mistake with one of their updates.
I just install http://ClassicShell.net as I have no use (yet) for any metro/modern tile apps.
Excellent article. I also have no use for these tiles. They are mind jarring colours, they are square and unappealing. Is Microsoft trying to put their customers off using windows? The surface pro 4 is a great machine now they have iron out the software more or less but to continue with tiles is daft. There must be other more appealing ways to deal with this issue.
David Jenkins