Windows 8 Metro Start Screen

Tag: Windows 8 Metro Start Screen

Windows 8 : How To Pin and Unpin Apps on Metro Start Screen in Windows 8

December 25, 2011 by Abhi·Comments Off

Hello Everyone.

With the launch of Windows 8 Microsoft has reached new hights in User Interface. But though the UI has changed from good (windows 7) to wicked cool (Windows icon cool Windows 8 : How to Change the Number of Apps Rows in Windows 8 Metro Start Screen the same amount of learning curve is required. As you wont find the options so easily as you do on windows 7. So thats why i have started this WINDOWS 8 HOW TO series to help everyone find there way through windows 8.

So this time i will start off with tips on how to pin and unpin apps from Metro Start Screen.

If you want to pin an app on the Metro Start Sceen just follow the steps below:

1. Hover your mouse over the bottom most and left most corner of your screen. Click on search. ALternatively you can press Windows key + F.

Start Click

2. Select apps from search list on the right and find the app you want o pin.

3. Now if you don’t see you rapp listed here then you need to go to the start menu folder (hidden by default) and create a shortcut form the app’s .exe file in the Start Menu folder and the trying searcing for the app again. The folders to see for Start Menu items are :

For Your Account Only:
C:\Users\User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

For All User Accounts: (must be administrator)
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

: New Shortcut

4. You will see the app now.

: Pin App

5. You can right click on the app to pin it to the start screen.

: Pin App

7. Now you can see you app on the Metro Start Screen.

: Pinned App Metro Start Screen

Unpin An App Metro Start Screen

To Unpin an app from the Metro Start Screen simply search the app (Windows KEy + F ) and right click on it and it will be unpinned from the Metro Start Screen .

Hope this was helpful. Will soon be back with another Windows 8 How To. Comments and feedback are always welcome.

Windows 8 : How to Change the Number of Apps Rows in Windows 8 Metro Start Screen

December 25, 2011 by Abhi·Comments Off

Hello Everyone.

With the launch of Windows 8 Microsoft has reached new hights in User Interface. But though the UI has changed from good (windows 7) to wicked cool (Windows 8) the same amount of learning curve is required. As you wont find the options so easily as you do on windows 7. So thats why i have started this WINDOWS 8 HOW TO series to help everyone find there way through windows 8.

So this time i will start off with changing the number of apps rows in windows 8 metro start screen.

Windows 8 Metro Home Screen

You should know that Windows 8 automatically detects the current screen resolution and then sets the number of rows as well as other pinned items that should be be available on the start screen. By default it is 3 to 5 in Windows 8.

So in the screen above you can see that there are 4 rows. The resolution for the above screen is 1920 x 1080. Here below i am adding a table for minimum and max number of rows for each resolution.

Screen Resolution	Default	Max	Min
800 x 600	3	3	1
1024 x 768	4	4	1
1152 x 864	5	5	1
1280 x 720	4	4	1
1280 x 960	5	6	1
1280 x 1024	5	6	1
1440 x 900	5	5	1
1600 x 900	5	5	1
1900 x 1080	5	6	1

To increase or decrease the number of apps rows on metro start screen follow the steps below:

1. Press Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog box. And write regedit.exe in it and press enter.

Windows Run Command

2. If you are prompted by the UAC then click yes and you will see a registry editor window. In the registry editor navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Grid

You should see something like below:

Regisrtry Editor

3. Now double click on the key Layout_MaximumRowCount and you should see the window like below and here you can change the number of rows that you should see by default on your home screen.

Edit DWORD

4. If the key Layout_MaximumRowCount is not present then right click on a empty space in the right pane of the grid and click on New –> DWORD and then type Layout_MaximumRowCount and press enter.

New DWORD

5. Now log off and log on and you will see the same number of rows as you set here.

Hope you like it. I will be back with another How to very soon. Feedback and comments are most welcome.