How to make a custom tile in Windows 8 from an old program?

Question

I've got an old Visual Studio 6-made program, and when I install it on Windows 8, it has a default tile. Problem is, it's the smaller tile and the name of the program is too long to fit in comfortably, plus the icon is resized and looks bad.

Is there a way to create a custom Windows 8 tile that's got a different size and icon, without actually creating a specific Windows 8 program? I'd like to be able to do this with batch files as well if possible.

Answer 1

Metro apps in Windows 8 have the full experience of creating live tiles, secondary tiles, wide tiles, etc. Only Metro apps can customize their tiles, not desktop apps. The tile APIs exist only in WinRT for Metro apps.

For a desktop app like you have (the "old Visual Studio 6-made program" that is not Metro), you can try this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/cc144119(v=vs.85).aspx. Make sure to click on the other topics in the left sidebar too.

Edit: This method can change the icon for older applications. Since the icon is what is used in the start menu, this is a way to give older apps a more attractive static icon in the new start menu.