How to match app tile color with Start Menu on Windows 10
Windows users have been customizing their desktops since forever. With Windows 10, the Start Menu is yet another UI element that can be customized. By default, you can change how the Start Menu looks by changing the accent color, or by rearranging the icons that you’ve pinned to it. You will of course notice that app tiles on the Start Menu are a slightly darker color than the accent color. This is, perhaps, done to highlight them or make them easier to see. If you’d like to match app tile color with the Start Menu, you’re going to need a free open-source app called TileIconifier.
Match app tile color with Start Menu
This is a time consuming process so make sure you’ve set you accent color to one you won’t change often. Go with a nice dark grey which will look good with most wallpapers. Additionally, the process for editing the app tile for a UWP app is different than the process for a desktop app. For a desktop app, it’s pretty simple.
Find Start Menu Color
If you have a color picker tool that can run on your desktop and pick the accent color that’s applied to it. If you don’t have a color picker tool, go ahead and take a screenshot of the Start Menu. Open the screenshot in Paint, use the Paint app’s color picker tool to get the exact color from the Start Menu. Use the color selection tool to get its RGB values, and get its HEX code for it. You will need the HEX code when you change the app tile color.
Change desktop app tile
Run TileIconifier and allow it to fetch a list of all the desktop apps installed on your system. It can take a little time so let the app work without interrupting it.
From the list, select an app that you’ve pinned to the Start Menu. On the right, next to the Medium Icon place holder, click the button highlighted in the screenshot below. A window will open where you can select an icon for the app. It’s best to go with the default icon which will be listed there but you are free to chose any icon you want.
Once the icon has been added, use the slider under the icon place holders to adjust how much the icon fills a tile out. It’s good to make sure the color shows up a bit around it.
When you’re done setting the size, click the color code field indicated in the screenshot below and enter the HEX code for the Start Menu color. Click ‘Tile Iconify!’ button once after selecting a theme. You will have to click it for both themes.
Change UWP app tile
Open TileIconifier and go to Utilities on the menu bar. Select Custom Shortcut Manager. In the window that opens, click ‘Create new shortcut’. Go to the Windows Store tab, and select one of the UWP apps that you’ve pinned to the Start Menu. Click Generate Shortcut.
Once the shortcut has been created, it will appear in the list of desktop apps. Follow the same process for desktop apps from this point forward and create the new tile.
Once the tile has been created, you have to pin it to the Start Menu. You only need to do this for UWP apps.
Open the Start Menu and unpin the app tile that you just modified the tile for. Go to your apps’ list and under TileIconifier, you will find the new ‘shortcut’ tile you created. Pin it to the Start Menu.
Repeat this for all your apps. All of them. It will take time but you can end up with something neat. Remember that you don’t have to match the color to the Start Menu. You can contrast it too.
