yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] cadarn07:
Minor issues

Great app, thanks so much! A couple of minor issues I've seen:

1. On my media PC I used this app to create shortcuts to Libraries on a networked drive (My Videos, Documents, etc on another PC). These shortcuts open the folders fine, but an error message also pops up every time behind the folder stating that the network location (or directory) couldn't be found. I just click OK and everything works fine otherwise.

2. Again on my media PC, I have ripped a DVD movie (.iso format) in a local folder (not a network folder) that I created a shortcut to with OblyTile. When I click the shortcut, I get a very similar error message to the first issue except the file doesn't launch. The dialog box just said there is no file there. At this point, I had ISO's set to "mount" in explorer (and then I would just right click the drive it mounted to and run the file with VLC). After this, I set the ISO to open with VLC by default (to play the movie) instead of mounting to Explorer (which is really what I wanted anyway). After doing this, the OblyTile shortcut worked fine with no error. But if you did want to mount ISO's by default (which I usually do, just not on this PC), it seems that the OblyTile shortcut wouldn't work unless there's another way to input the target for the shortcut to force it to mount in explorer.

Very minor bugs (unless I didn't set something right?), but I just wanted to mention them as you continue to develop the app. Thanks again for this awesome tool!
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
A clean up function to detect & delete unused folder can be made on future releases, thanks you for your suggestion! :good:

This is fixed on version v0.9 (will be disponible during this week)

This issue may get solved by changing the way to launch program.

OblyTIle uses generics Vbs files as launcher, my idea is to make a small launcher. (This will solve many issue).

Thanks you for the feedback! :good:
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] o0z0o:
Hi Argony-OT :) I have many questions to You. How works Your program? I mean how You customize vbs shortcuts programmatically? You using C# windows form application to create secondary tile, or something else? I have idea how can create wide tiles too (with two programs c# for windows and c# for store apps), but my English writing is not very pure. I will try to explain. There are must be two kinds of applications:

Thank You.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] evoandroidevo:
Omg thank you so much been looking for something like this thanks x10
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Androidmarketuser:
I think this method is used by Pin Anything or other programs, but I don't know exactly.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hello,

OblyTile is made in Visual Basic (.net), it does not require any Windows Store App to work. This is the goal, keep the program work without using the (limited) windows api.

Using a mixed app (Windows App + Desktop App) is a good way, but is still limited. What i'm trying to do with OblyTile is to give a fast way to create tiles without installing softwares on your pc.

Thanks you a lot for your post! :good:

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] o0z0o:
Can you tell me how you pin your shortcuts to metro with custom images? And how you customize title color programmatically? It is registry trick? It's need compiler? And you use modified version of "resources.pri" what this file do it must be built with vb (.net)? If You answer me this questions i will experimenting and later share with you my ideas. I want to know root ideas how to beat the system and work with it. This is my hobby.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
I will contact you in private message.

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
OblyTile v0.9 Update

New update released. :good:

Some of the function requested are not included on this update, i hope to include them on the future updates.

More infos on main post.

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] CrimsonKnight13:
New version works great. Thanks again for a great release! :good:
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] TheRealGreenVirus:
Hey guys, I was always getting my pictures from win8tiles.com but that site seems to be down, do you guys know another place?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Red_Kop:
Thanks for this great app.

It works perfect apart from when I link a tile to a folder.

If I link a tile to a folder, I simply get taken into Desktop mode, but nothing else happens.

Any idea why?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Mjuksel:
Depends on how you have made the tile.

The program path should lead to Windows folder to explorer.exe

The argument should be the folder, I guess.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
So far i know these place where to get picture to use as tile:

http://www.tile8.com/ (Work in progress, will support donations, rating, and maybe it will be integrated on OblyTile, so to search picture by using OblyTile itself)

http://dakirby309.deviantart.com/ (Thanks for the big packs of tiles and OblyTIle icon :victory:)

http://win8tiles.com/

http://walloftiles.net/

http://startscreentiles.com/

Deviantart.com - Tile category

http://www.reddit.com/r/Gamingtiles

http://www.reddit.com/r/tileicons (work in progress)

If someone knows more websites feel free to share with us! :good:

That's strange, it works fine here, even with folder that contains unicode characters on the name folder (or folder path)

Will investigate on this.

Thanks you for your for your feedback!

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Specter597:
Because...

Yeah, I know I can pin a website to the start menu from IE Metro ... but the Tiles created by Windows look like poop.

I can't figure a way of modifying a shortcut created by IE so I was trying to use OblyTile as a crutch to make Windows look better.

(Because, OblyTile is awesome - and I want Windows to look better.)
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] FTMDan:
Is there any way of stopping it so that when I search for a program that I have applied a custom tile to, it has a blue background then the tile on top of it, so it looks like the tiles have a blue border.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hello,

I suggest to use pictures with transparent background as Small Tile image, so to have a better result.

Example of small tile with transparent background:

Example of small tile without transparent background:

Hope this helps

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Aldokazer:
Hey. I like this program a lot and with the help of this, metro start screen looks wayy better than before.

One thing, in the icon created by the installer of a program, there us an option to uninstall it directly by just right-clicking it. Can you add that to oblytile? That would give it more of a realistic feel and make it better.

Thanks anyways :) :D
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Scur827:
Searching through this thread, I see that large tiles aren't yet working. Yet that is where I have to place my pics. When I put anything in the Tile Small Image it is a waste of time. It only shows the large image, and it crops the edges. So I have to make my image 120x120 then add 60 pixels to either side so it shows the original 120x120 image I wanted. If I only make it 120x120, it will stretch the image to 240x120, then crop the edges to 120x120. Is that how it's working for everyone else?

Also, the tile settings are an awesome touch, well done.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Aldokazer:
Couldn't get you, but the small image is for the list which comes out when you search any program.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Scur827:
I see.

What I meant was that if I put a 240x120 pic in the large entry, it will only show the center 120x120 section of it. And if I put a 120x120 pic in the large entry, it will first stretch the pic out to 240x120 first, then show the center 120x120 section of the stretched pic.

Galaxy Note 2 > Rooted Stock ROM > Tapatalk 2
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Aldokazer:
Are u sure? Cuz that doesn't happens with me.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] aankun:
Awesome app

now my start screen look better :good:

any plan to add 1x2 or any tile size option?

that would be great :fingers-crossed:
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Mamoun14:
Thank for the new update. :)

Is it technically possible to add support for "flipping" or animating tiles? So that, for example, I can add multiple images to a tile and windows will animate between them frequently as it does for the other live tiles?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
If i'll find a way to add more contextual options for a tile, i will sure add this function :highfive:

Thanks you for your suggestion :good:

Take a look here: Tile and toast image sizes

This may help you to figure out the exact size to use for an optimal result. Also, OblyTile will automatically re-size (to 120x120) a picture that is bigger than 200kb.

I hope to figure out how to create wide tiles, and/or custom sized tiles, so far, no luck.

Technically is possible, the problem is that the tile will not be a "dual mode" tile, so, it will be not able to run any program. i hope to find a workaround for this "issue".

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] sweetfish:
Great app! I would like to know if its possible to have the tiles be transparent?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hello,

No plan yet for this function. :(

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] andreivv:
Rebuit cache "bug"

Hi..

First of all :good::good::good: nice app .. I'm using it since early version :)

Anyway.. I wanted to ask if anyone has a problem with the cache of the icons..

Every time I start up the PC I have to rebuilt the cache of the tiles, and some times it happens "randomly" ..

Is there a way to see what is it caused by for a fix?

I'm running Win8 Pro x86 on a x64 pc.. (don't ask..)

Also.. I hope you'll add an option for transparent instead of color for tiles ;)
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] goldflame09:
first of all, this is a wonderful app

but i have one issue that i hope you or someone else can help me resolve

i have google chrome set as me default browser to open up in modern ui. as soon as i create a tile, i click on chrome and it goes to the desktop, then opens it up in modern ui. is there a way that i can just manage to have it open in modern ui like it would normally and skip the whole open desktop thing?

thanks, and again nice job with this.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hello, i suggest to try >>This<<

It is a temporary solution, a fix for the issue will be included in future.

Hello, i'll attept a workaround for this issue within next version (v0.9.1), not sure if it will work as planned.

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] andreivv:
Done, Will update with results.

Thanks ;)
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] dubsdj:
Hi thats great news about the ALL USERS tiles!

one question:

I have already deployed my suite of Windows 8 computers.

is there a way of exporting my tiles and importing them on each PC as I don't fancy recreating each batch on 30 computers.

many thanks again!!!
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Scur827:
I got my large and small tiles using the Pin Steam app. I just added whatever I wanted shortcuts to to Steam and went from there.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] dubsdj:
Set Tile to beginning of Slide

Hi, I have figured out how to export the tiles, however I noticed something that would be good if possible.

when I create tiles, they appear right at the far right of my tiles, is there an option to tell the tile to appear a the far left so the user sees them when they log in instead of having to scroll a long way to the right?

thanks

---------- Post added at 01:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:32 PM ----------

Another thing that I have noticed is that this tool is applying to the local profiles only.

If a new user comes along and logs in they won't see the new tiles until I re-run obly tile on that PC

because they don't have a local profile already on the computer.

is there a way of making the tiles apply as the default profile ?

thanks
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hello,

At this moment i do not have a clue how to place the shortcuts on an other position other than the far right, if i find a way to place them on a different position, this will be included on OblyTile.

I'll see what can i do.

Thanks you for your feedback :good:

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Momsey:
Hey guys,

I have one question:

Yesterday, I wanted to use OblyTile to create tiles for URLs which should be opened in Immersive mode of my default browser IE10.

I tried almost everything but I was not successful at all. Whatever I did, the desktop browser was used to open URLs (I also passed the URLs as parameters to the iexplore.exe).

The only time I was able to open IE in immersive mode was using the pre-configured Tile which says Open default browser (Immersive). But then it just shows about:blank and I was not able to pass a URL to this configuration.

What did I miss? Is this not possible? Using Tiles for URLs of Web services which don't have Win8 apps (yet) is my main use case to create custom tiles...

Thanks a lot for any clarifying answer

and thanks a lot for the application itself!

Cheers
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Marshall31:
thanks, how to make pri with makepri ? i have tested for wide tile and not work
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] dubsdj:
Thanks
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] andreivv:
Unfortunatly the tiles still lose the cache. Can you tell me what I should look into to see what it could cause this? any idea?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] criticalfungus:
Steam ID's

Hi Argony-OT

Firstly thank you for implementing the Random Colours function I asked for, will save me loads of time.

Just noticed with 0.9 we appear to no longer be able to use Steam App ID's in the Program field. e.g.

In 0.8.8 if I used the command steam://rungameid/201310 in the Program field of a tile. It would launch the relevant Steam App

In 0.9 if I used the command steam://rungameid/201310 in the Program field of a tile, it moves the steam://rungameid/201310 to the arguments field and puts C:\Program in the Program field when I hit save. The resulting tile tries to run C:\Program but obviously fails.

Other than that is working great, thank you for your work on this app

Dale
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hello, the new version of OblyTile (v0.9.1) will include the function to open links in immersive mode (if supported by your predefinite browser).

Ciao!

The problem is mostly caused by Google Chrome, but i really don't know why this happens.

Maybe this can help: Reddit - OblyTile Fix

Hey there, the idea was to get the steam.exe path and pass the steam app id as argument, this will solve the problem with some games not starting correctly.

The problem is already solved on the version 0.9.1, it should be available for the download during this week.

Thanks for your feedback :good:

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] marcd2k12:
Are you able to make this more compatible with a higher DPI setting in Windows? I have mine set to 125% and most of the text is cut off, see the screenshot:

If you're using .net then Me.AutoScaleMode = Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Dpi for the main form should do it as long as the controls are set to Windows.Forms.Autoscalemode.Inherit
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] andreivv:
If that's the problem, I'll uninstall chrome :P ..
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] reza-shady:
hi

how can i add my user document shortcut !?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Bummerten:
Now we just need support for wide tiles.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
I'll try. :good:

Thanks you.

:( I wish i could fix it.

Write this on Program Path:

shell:documentsLibrary

:)

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] reza-shady:
hi again :D

10x for your answer but it doesn't help me

look i don't want to add library shortcut.

see this image http://img.ir/LKx.png

it's my desktop

i want to add that Mr.Shady folder in top left of my desktop into tiles.

i simply added it by pinning it to start but i want to customizing it with custom color and icon !

so sorry for my poor English !
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Try this one:

shell:UsersFilesFolder

Hope this helps

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] reza-shady:
it Works

great :X

10x a lot
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Jacek95:
Hello, i was just wondering, are there any plans to implement expandable tiles?

is it even possible ?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hello, wide tiles are planned.

Problem is that wide tiles will, most surely, require a background process. I'm still trying to figure out a way that won't use any background process, just as the square tiles do.

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Jacek95:
how about 9patch from android ?

can it be used to stretch images ?

maybe there could be few settings affecting small and big tile as well:

Icon Settings

1. Center the specified icon [Browse: ...] and use background [Select color: ...] or fill the background with the color of pixel on position (1,1) or whatever (just to pick up bg color) (see that there are many metro-like icon packs that have solid background, so as not to ruin the concept of clean user modded interface You could consider adding this option as well.

2. Fill the tile without changing the aspect ratio, Choose alignment [top,center,bottom,manual](manual = moving manually on the tile preview by mouse)

How about making the editing process a bit more live ? I mean generating preview tile with

-editable name with checkbox near to toggle it's visibility

-clickable icon

-clickable background or a ribbon looking out behind the preview tile to activate color selection

-both big and small tile visible or a toggle to switch between them

Edit: i had just made a concept art

For illustration look in the attachment ;)

I just fell in love with this app and want to make it perfect(er) :D

P.S. Please consider in future making the app no higher than 600px coz netbook users, like me can't see the full tile preview ;)

Thanx in advance
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hello :highfive:

I'm not sure if something like 9patch can be done with Windows 8, but, i'm pretty sure that it would need some edits on system files, which is something i don't want to do.

About the concept, is really nice :good:

I'm taking in consideration to change the OblyTile UI, but only after that OblyTile is complete (wide tiles, more functions and stability)

Keep in touch, i really like your ideas.

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] trashbytes:
Hey Argony!

What about an automatic updater like the one nVidia Inspector has? It automatically swapps the old exe with the new one. Pretty awesome and fast, no messing around with browser download or so.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] :
Is it possible to make a shortcut to "Computer" with Oblytile? I would love to have a direkt shortcut in the startscreen.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Zer0K3wL:
I love this program came across this by coincidence, i do pay for app like this also.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Hey there :highfive:

Yes, an auto update function can be made, but after the version 1.0 (wich should include most of the functions requested) :good:

Yes, here's an example picture:

Hope this helps

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] :
Yes, it worked. Thank you very much!
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
OblyTile v0.9.1

New update released.

Just some small changes and fixes.

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] abowlby:
Thank you for sharing this with everyone. Great app sir!
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] C-Lang:
Would it be possible to make it so that shortcuts work on Windows RT after a reboot, without re-jailbreaking?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
Yes, but this would work only with few applications build on the OS, also it require batch script instead of vbs. Which, will show the command prompt everytime you run the application.

There are many workaround for this problem, but i can't actually test those on Windows RT, cause, i don't have any device with Windows RT.

Hope to find a solution, so to add this function on the next version of OblyTile.

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] PotentChili:
I'm having an issue with the latest March 27 build. When I set Firefox or Paint or anything like that to be "single instance" it resizes the window every single time..
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] C-Lang:
Ok, so webpages or Office shortcuts in the future? I would love to be a tester if you need one, just message me! :fingers-crossed: Thanks!
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] DroidHam:
Is there a trick to making them look good? Im trying to link to http://streak.espn.go.com/en/entry and all the Streak For the Cash images are either blown up and pixelated or too big for the icon...

Am I doing something wrong?
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] C-Lang:
You might want to edit whatever High-res icon you have in Powerpoint or GIMP or something, and put a bit of a background to it, then save it as a picture. Then make this the pic for the shortcut. If you have a picture you have found for the icon, just put it in a slightly larger box of solid color! :fingers-crossed:
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] ScAtMaN UK:
On the look out for a way to make wide custom tiles I stumbled upon another app called Tile a File. It has the ability to make a tile for any file (but not shortcuts or .exe unfortunately) and make a regular OR wide tile for it. Could a closer look at how this developer makes it happen shed some light in getting it to work for programs?

I should mention that this is a free metro app, available from the store.
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] marcd2k12:
Tile-A-File can't do EXE's because .net apps written for Windows 8 can't run exe files. The rest of it works, i believe, by creating what are known as 'secondary tiles' which link to filetypes allowed by microsoft. They will only allow filetypes like jpg, png, txt, doc, xls etc, nothing executable and no custom extensions, I have tried!!

I do have a potential solution for it however, which I will try out when i get some time, but I expect it would probably go against Microsoft's terms and conditions for the app store and i wouldn't be able to get it on there...

Oh and thanks for the oblytile update! The DPI is working much better now :)

There are still a couple of bits that don't fit and some of the fonts have gone perhaps a little too small, but I am happy with it, as I know what the boxes do now!!
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] Argony-OT:
I'll give a look to the problem.

Thanks you for the feedback.

Glad to hear!

Thanks you :highfive:

Any help is welcome :highfive:

Sadly OblyTile uses a different method to create tiles.

Tecnically, i can create Wide Tiles, problem is, that those tiles do not execute any program/app.

Thanks you for the post! :good:

Will retry the DPI fix with the next update, thanks you for the test :highfive:

Argony
[Windows 8 Development and Hacking] t-ryder:
That's pretty cool.

I thought about a tile editor too, but the idea was that users can specify a background (png or 9.png) for the tiles to get rid of that super postmodern slight colored squares that are just not everybodies style. Having such a feature combined with a cool custom VS for Win 8 would kick ass.

I have a genuine copy and serial key for Windows 8. I think after figuring out how to fix some driver issues for my laptop I would like Win 8

if I had such customizing options. Maybe I'll just stick to Win 7.