Manually edit tile icons in Start Menu?

Hello,

I've been searching for a while but I couldn't find sufficient answers on how to do this.

Is there a tutorial to manually make and set tile icons for 3rd party programs that fill up the tiles as a whole just like Store app icons, without using any editing software?
The reason I want to do this manually is because the apps in the Windows Store that can edit these icons have to pop up every time I start the program that I have edited its icon with the editing app. This seems to be something that can't be disabled.
Oblytile seemed to be a good editing app that doesn't pop up every time you start up the program you've edited its icon of, but unfortunately it's not compatible with Windows 10 anymore.

Also, if there is an editing app that doesn't pop up, I'd really like it to be able to also make wide tiles (not just small or medium squared tiles) since many editing apps don't support that.

Looking forward to answers on this.

Cliff S said:

Tutorial from @Hopachi he made at Eight Forums: Solved Custom Tiles (for Desktop Apps)

And her in Ten Forums, where I learned fro him and created and posted some of mine: Windows 10 Themes created by Ten Forums members - Page 121 - Solved - Windows 10 Forums

<Application xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'>
<VisualElements
ShowNameOnSquare150x150Logo='on'
Square150x150Logo='chrome.png'
Square70x70Logo='chrome.png'
ForegroundText='light'
BackgroundColor='#343434'/>
</Application>


Save as Program name(get from the executable).VisualElementsManifest

For Chrome it was chrome.VisualElementsManifest

You need to get/use a .png icon 256x256 pixels and give it the exact name(case sensitive) as the program executable (.exe) has and also use that exact name when creating your XML manifest file.

The place both files in the same exact folder as the .exe, delete the original old files, or better yet cut and paste them to a folder in Documents for saf keeping if you start having problems getting it to work.

from Hopachi:

   Information

Keep it simple
The PNG and the XML files can be placed in the same folder as the exe.
One PNG file of 256x256 (tested) is more than enough: use it for both 150x150 and 70x70 entries.
If you pin or un-pin and re-pin, the new tile will be used.

Code:
<Application xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'>
<VisualElements
ShowNameOnSquare150x150Logo='on'
Square150x150Logo='test.png'
Square70x70Logo='test.png'
ForegroundText='light'
BackgroundColor='#5AADC8'/>
</Application>

Here is one I made for Firefox as an example to get you started(I hope:)):
firefox tile pack.zip

Thanks for the detailed tutorial. Before I dive into this, does this also let you make Wide tiles (310x150) for an app?

Cliff S said:

You're welcome, no it doesn't, as the large and wide are reserved for UWP apps only.

Ah, that's a real bummer. Really would have wanted that. The editing apps in the Windows Store do make that possible. Is this the reason why it's only possible to create wide tiles if the editing app opens along with the app that you've editied its icon of?

Cliff S said:

I have never used it, so I couldn't say, sorry

No problem. Thank you very much for the help nonetheless.

Perhaps someone else knows a workaround to enable wide and large tiles for apps without having to launch the editing program every time I start the app?

Cliff S said:

When you unpin, restart your pc to clear the cache, then repin.
If that doesn't do it, unpin, go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and delete the icon there, restart, then repin the .exe to start menu.

It(the icon can also be in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

Great, I'll try that. Thanks again for your help!