Oblytile alternative?

Thanx for the perfect explanation....
Unfortunately it does not work in Windows 10!!!
As soon as you click the new tile a pop up from Windows tells you that you need an app.

Unless you have a solution, I go on looking arround.

Greetings,
Hans

vairish said:

First you need to install Dropbox - TileCreatorProxy.exe as an administrator. This will create a folder called Tilecreator on your C drive and in that folder is a file called ApprovedApps.config. You need to open ApprovedApps.config with notepad and add whatever programs/files/urls you want to assign tiles to in the format 'key : path'. For example, if I want to add iTunes I'd add:

Itunes:C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe

In that example the red text 'Itunes' is the key and the green text is the path.

If I want to add a URL I'd add:

Tenforum:https://www.tenforums.com/

Where once again 'Tenforum' is the key and "www.tenforums.com" is the path.

If I wanted to add an excel file I'd add:

Budget:C:\Users\Joe\Documents\File1.xlsx

etc etc etc

This is how the file would look with those three entries:



Now I save that file and open Tilecreator, and if I wanted to create a tile for iTunes it would look like this:

Attachment 29015

You just enter a name (which is optional), a key which in this case is Itunes and an image. If I wanted to open the excel document I linked to in the ApprovedApps.config file I'd just put 'Budget' in the key section or if I wanted to open the URL I linked to in that file I'd just put 'Tenforum' in instead.

Edit:

Unfortunately do to a limitation of Windows Store apps these Tile programs do need to pop open first when you click on a tile. However when your finished making your tiles you can open Tilecreator and move it with your mouse behind your taskbar and you'll never notice it's there. Here's a video of my screen and except for the Tilecreator icon appearing on the taskbar for a split second you'd never know it was there:

Hmroep said:

Thanx for the perfect explanation....
Unfortunately it does not work in Windows 10!!!
As soon as you click the new tile a pop up from Windows tells you that you need an app.

Unless you have a solution, I go on looking arround.

Greetings,
Hans

It really does work in Windows 10. That error is generally caused by two things. Either the companion app was not installed as an admin which in that case you need to delete C:\TileCreator and do it again, or you've entered the file wrong in ApprovedApps.config. The most common mistake I've seen so far is people not putting in the file extension at the end or writing it in quotes. It should simply look like:

Example:C:\Example\Example.exe

not

"Example:C:\Example\Example.exe"

or

Example:C:\Example\Example

Hello,
Unistalled the App, deleted the directory.
Than installed again....

Now on my C drive is not directory with the App and the config file!

I think I have a beter solution....

But I found a solution! First, download and install Advanced BAT to EXE Converter (Advanced BAT to EXE Converter - Official Site - Freeware encrypt compile batch files to .EXE with Extra powerful commands) In the Documents folder, I create a folder called Batch files. I open Notepad and type the following line: start Travel Things for a URL, and you can of course change the URL itself. For a document I type: start C: \ Users \ "Hans M. Roeper" \ Documents \ Excel / autovergelijk.xls
WATCH OUT! A folder set consists of multiple words with spaces between quotation marks! And now I save such a file with a name and the extension bat (Name.BAT) in the Batch Files folder. With scout I go to the Batch Files folder right click the file and choose "Compile with Advanced BAT to EXE. Now you can click on the exe file and the right to "To Start attach. And there is probably somewhere a program to change the rule on this link ..

Greetings,
Hans

vairish said:

It really does work in Windows 10. That error is generally caused by two things. Either the companion app was not installed as an admin which in that case you need to delete C:\TileCreator and do it again, or you've entered the file wrong in ApprovedApps.config. The most common mistake I've seen so far is people not putting in the file extension at the end or writing it in quotes. It should simply look like:

Example:C:\Example\Example.exe

not

"Example:C:\Example\Example.exe"

or

Example:C:\Example\Example

Tile a File I mentioned before. This is a solution for what's not possible with Tile a File.

First, download and install Advanced BAT to EXE Converter (Advanced BAT to EXE Converter - Official Site - Freeware encrypt compile batch files to .EXE with Extra powerful commands) In the Documents folder, create a folder called Batchfiles. I open Notepad and type the following line: start Travel Things for a URL, and you can of course change the URL itself. For a document I type: start C: \ Users \ "Hans M. Roeper" \ Documents \ Excel / autovergelijk.xls
WATCH OUT! A folder set consists of multiple words with spaces between quotation marks! And now save your file with a name and the extension bat (Name.BAT) in the Batch Files folder. Now go to the BatchFiles folder and right click the file and choose "Compile with Advanced BAT to EXE'. Now you can click on the exe file and the right to "Attach To Start'. And there is probably somewhere a program to change the tile on this link ..

Hmroep said:

Hello,
Unistalled the App, deleted the directory.

You don't need to uninstall the main app. You just delete C:\TileCreator and run this file again but as an administrator: Dropbox - TileCreatorProxy.exe

Hmroep said:

And there is probably somewhere a program to change the tile on this link.

The only programs that can do this are Tilecreator, Better Startmenu and Pin More. They can also just pin URLs and other files without needing to go through the bat conversion process.

Better Start menu creator send me this message :

"
Hi, sorry for the problem. I think this is a problem of Windows Store. But anyway, I've updated the app so that trial version has no limitations anymore. So after the update, even though you seem to be in trial mode, you can pin unlimited tiles. It seems Windows 10 Store has still some problems and because I can't do anything about it, I needed to make the trial version unlimited. I hope you understand my situation. You can ask for a refund from Microsoft if you have such an option in Store. Sorry again. Please note that the update might take some time to be displayed on your Windows Store, but I've published the update today."

I'll try later. You can dl the App here : Better StartMenu

Llyan said:

Better Start menu creator send me this message :

"
Hi, sorry for the problem. I think this is a problem of Windows Store. But anyway, I've updated the app so that trial version has no limitations anymore. So after the update, even though you seem to be in trial mode, you can pin unlimited tiles. It seems Windows 10 Store has still some problems and because I can't do anything about it, I needed to make the trial version unlimited. I hope you understand my situation. You can ask for a refund from Microsoft if you have such an option in Store. Sorry again. Please note that the update might take some time to be displayed on your Windows Store, but I've published the update today."

I'll try later. You can dl the App here : Better StartMenu

Its working a lot better my friend. Thanks for responding and updated the app.

BeK said:

I can't find where the exe files for these apps are so that I can make custom tiles for them. Can anyone offer any assistance?
I have even used the search function to no avail.

1. Edge
2. Xbox
3. Mail

Pin the apps you want to your start menu and from there drag them onto your desktop, this will create a shortcut file (you can remove the apps from your start menu once you've made the shortcut). Copy the shortcut file anywhere you like (personally I'm using C:\TileCreator\Shortcuts) and then link to the shortcut like you would an exe file.

So for example for Microsoft Edge I'm using:

Edge:C:\TileCreator\Shortcuts\Microsoft Edge.lnk

vairish said:

Pin the apps you want to your start menu and from there drag them onto your desktop, this will create a shortcut file (you can remove the apps from your start menu once you've made the shortcut). Copy the shortcut file anywhere you like (personally I'm using C:\TileCreator\Shortcuts) and then link to the shortcut like you would an exe file.

So for example for Microsoft Edge I'm using:

Edge:C:\TileCreator\Shortcuts\Microsoft Edge.lnk

Thank you my friend for the fast response but sadly TileCreator doesn't work for me so I'm using Better Start Menu and it only works with exe files not shortcuts.
Thanks anyhow.