TileIconifier: make Windows Tiles prettier
TileIconifier is a free portable program for devices running Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system that enables you to make program tiles displayed in the operating system's start menu prettier.
If you have worked on a Windows 10 system before you may know that two types of tiles may be displayed in the start menu.
First application or UWP tiles which usually are custom made and look quite good, and then desktop program tiles which usually look quite bad.
The reason for this is that Microsoft extracts the icon used by these programs and displays it as a tiny version in the center of the tile.
TileIconifier review
As you can see on the screenshot above, the tiles look extremely bad especially when displayed as medium sized tiles. The only tile that looks different is the Microsoft Edge tile, and the main difference is the custom background color that the tile uses.
Lets take a look at the same start menu after using TileIconifier for a couple of minutes. The only icon that was not modified in any way was the Edge tile, as TileIconifier can only be used to customize desktop program tiles.
TileIconifier is a powerful program but it makes basic operations easy as pie. Simply download, extract and run the program on a system running Windows 10 to get started.
The program lists all shortcuts -- of desktop programs -- in the interface on start. The table lists additionally whether the icon has been customized already, and whether the program is pinned to Start.
If you want fast results, select one of the program shortcuts, and click on the "medium icon" tile on the right of it afterwards.
This opens a new menu that you use to select a new icon for the image. At least one icon is displayed there by default usually as the program extracts icons from the executable file automatically.
You can select that icon then right away, or select a custom image or different file to extract icons from.
TileIconifier displays the optimized icon as a medium and small tile automatically in its interface then. You may change the appearance in several ways:
- Zoom in or out of the icon using a slider.
- Move the icon.
- Pick a custom background color for the tile (instead of the default blue-grayish color that Windows 10 uses).
- Disable the foreground text (usually the application's name).
- Change the foreground text from light to dark.
Once you are satisfied with the changes hit the "tile iconify" button to apply the change to the icon. There is also a handy reset button in case you need to start over.
Repeat the process for any desktop tile displayed in the start menu. The process should not take longer than a minute per icon, usually less unless you take your time customizing the icon.
Closing Words
TileIconifier is an easy to use yet powerful program to make Windows Tiles linking to desktop programs prettier on machines running Windows 10.
It is one of the easiest programs of its kind thanks to the automatic extraction of program icons which you may use as the new tile icon.
If you use the windows 10 start menu, and not one of the many alternatives such as Classic Shell or Start10, you may find the program useful.
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277