Customize windows 8 live tiles how to#

So how do you learn more about the different tile templates and their respective XML? Fortunately, Microsoft has a nice documentation page in the Windows 8 Store SDK. By doing that you can control what shows in your appвЂ™s tile on the Windows 8 start screen. Each tile template has XML associated with it that you need to load, update with your custom data, and then feed into a tile update manager. The first thing you need to know if you want to add custom tile functionality (live tiles) into your application is that there is a collection of tile templates available out-of-the-box. Both XAML/C# and HTML/JavaScript apps support live tiles and IвЂ™ll show the code for both options.

Customize windows 8 live tiles how to#

In this post IвЂ™ll walk through how to add tile notification functionality into an application. The can also make a wide tile smaller (into a square tile) or make a square tile bigger assuming the application supports both squares and rectangles. Fortunately, a user can easily disable a live tile by right-clicking on it or pressing and holding a tile on a touch device and then selecting Turn live tile off from the AppBar: IвЂ™ll admit that if you get enough of these tiles going the start screen can actually be a bit distracting. Examples of вЂњliveвЂќ tiles on part of my current start screen are shown next: While icons allow a user to start an application, tiles provide a more engaging way to engage the user and draw them into an application. One of the features that really makes Windows 8 apps stand out from others is the tile functionality on the start screen.

NET C# HTML5 JavaScript Windows 8 WinRT XAML