How to pin empty tiles to the Start Menu on Windows 10
The Start Menu lets you organize tiles into groups. You can use different sized tiles to add a little variety and to make more important tiles stand out. Besides groups, there isn’t much you can do to organize tiles. If you’re willing to do a little grunt work though, you can separate tiles with a group of empty tiles, or get creative with the icons you use and even add a line between them. Here’s how you can pin empty tiles to the Start Menu.
Create empty icon
For the empty tiles, you need an empty icon file. It’s easy to create and we have a post that details how you can do it. If you decide to add a line to separate tiles on the Start Menu, use the same trick but use Paint.net’s brush tool to add a stroke to your canvas.
Create file and shortcut
On your desktop, create a new text file. You don’t have to add anything to the file. Right-click it and select the Create Shortcut option. The shortcut is what you’re going to be working with. Right-click it and select Properties from the context menu.
On the General tab, click Change icon and use the empty icon for the shortcut.
Start up folder
Open File Explorer and navigate to the following location;
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Move the shortcut to this folder. One shortcut will add one tile. If you need more than one empty tile, you will need to create as many files and shortcuts to them.
Pin empty tiles to Start Menu
Open the Start Menu and go to the apps’ list. Look for the shortcut you moved to the Start Menu programs folder. Right-click it and select the Pin to Start option from the context menu. Repeat for all the empty shortcuts you want to pin and then move them wherever you like.
The tiles will still have a bit of gap between them because that’s the design but you can make them appear almost invisible if you match the tile color to the start menu.
This will add a lot of entries to the apps list so it’s a good idea to group them into a folder when you’re in the Programs folder in the second step. The entries will then appear in a folder in the apps’ list. It’s a good way to keep them organized. You should name the folder something that starts with a z and the folder will appear at the very end of the apps’ list.
