Creating your own Windows 8 Start Screen shortcuts (Tiles)

Posted in Windows 8

If you want to add customized functionality to the Windows 8 Start Screen, you can create your own Windows shortcuts or Tiles.  The process is no different than previous Windows versions, but the important piece of information you’ll need is to identify the location where the shortcut needs to be created.

To get your own Windows 8 Tile included on the Windows 8 Start Screen you simply create a shortcut in the following folder:

%appdata%\microsoft\windows\Start Menu\Programs\

This is useful to help customize your own Windows 8 experience, but even more useful for those managing Windows 8 desktops/laptops in the Enterprise where you need to script and deploy customized shortcuts to the end user.

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  • http://myITforum.com/myitforumwp/community/members/shiffrinp/ Shiff

    I found them at C:\Users\[yourprofile]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.

  • http://myITforum.com/myitforumwp/community/members/andyinsdca/ Andrew T.

    This also works in Server 2012 (I just tried!)

  • http://www.ashisbhadra.com/ Ashis Bhadra

    Thanks, it worked. It’s very useful to have the desired shortcuts on the Start screen.

  • http://twitter.com/Schwarz_Stephan Stephan

    The all users variant of this folder would be “C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms”
    or “C:UsersDefaultAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms”

  • http://twitter.com/NellCAdams Nell C Adams

    Sorry none of this works for me…

  • Fandangoed up the river

    Is there any way to have one shortcut to combine both of those menu
    folder addresses into one?

    It’s too odd having to look at both folders to see if a program has installed for system, or single user.