Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

Are you using Tiles? If not, GET IT!

I’ve been kind of down on the Windows 8 metro experience. Part of the reason is that I’ve seen how Microsoft might have implemented a Metro-style interface that would make sense on mobile and a desktop without doing what they actually did – tack on a completely different user experience (Metro) and make the desktop some sort of “legacy” environment.

This is a screenshot of my desktop. Using WindowFX, I have hidden all my icons (I double tap the desktop to bring them back). I have enabled the Tiles option to hide my taskbar. The bar on the right is Tiles. It’s not a “sidebar” in the traditional sense. At the top you have pages. Using your mouse (or on a touch screen your finger) you can turn pages by grabbing any blank area and dragging.

Now, on a mobile device I’d picture the pages being hidden except when you hit the home button and the tiles width being wider (you can control the size from the options menu, I have it on normal).

Now above I’ve made the tile pages as wide as they can be. If I wanted, I could get rid of the live previews and just have very large icons (which I’d be tempted to do if I were running on a mobile device). The live previews make it exceptionally easy to find what you’re looking for.

Here’s a diagram of one of my Tiles pages. As you can see, I have made it very narrow (max screen space) and have turned off live previews. With this set up, you can permanently turn off the task bar (we have made it so that the Windows key will still pop up the Start menu just in case there’s something you want to grab).

So how much is Tiles? Answer: FREE. There are premium features (like skinning and special page filters that are quite compelling for power users) but the base program already does what I think (and hope you will agree) could have been done with Windows 8 rather than creating a separate "Metro Start Screen” thing.

Download: www.stardock.com/products/tiles

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karmat

Join Date 02/2007

+193

Tiles rock, love using it!

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Uvah

Join Date 05/2006

+874

Okay

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2223

I don't use it, but I skin it. I use DX for everything. I use very little else.

I know, DX won't do what Tiles does.....maybe while skinning it, it'll grow on me?

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Lantec

Join Date 07/2003

+346

Quoting karmat,

reply 1

Tiles rock, love using it!

Ditto

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Snowman

Join Date 03/2001

+343

Nope. Don't use it nor skin it, any more. I find no real use for it, as it is.

BUT.... Give it top/bottom positioning capability, and it'd be a whole different ballgame....

Yeah, I know.

Snowman is a dreamer.

It'll never happen. That would tranform Tiles into a cool AND usefull application, instead of just being a usefull one.

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gmc2

Join Date 11/2003

+296

I think it's really great that you all come up with these ideas but it seems like just a taskbar with similar features and different interface.

just have very large icons (which I’d be tempted to do if I were running on a mobile device)

can this be run on a mobile device, which mobile OS's is this compatible with?

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good stuff i love mine!

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RedneckDude

Join Date 04/2009

+2223

Quoting Snowman,

reply 5

BUT.... Give it top/bottom positioning capability, and it'd be a whole different ballgame....

What do you mean?

Nevermind....I'm dense.

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starkers

Join Date 05/2004

+1153

I did try it out but there were issues with creating shortcuts to files, folders and programs. I'd create the correct path and everything but tiles repeatedly said the items could not be found, so I gave up and tried the Omnimo interface in Rainmeter to get a better experience of tiles without having to install Win 8 again. Now I don't mind that... to a point. It is fully customisable and all my added shortcuts work. However, it is not something I want on my desktop full-time and I usually revert to the traditional Windows UI after 20 or so minutes because I prefer it customised over everything else I've tried

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Snowman

Join Date 03/2001

+343

Quoting RedneckDude,

reply 8

Quoting Snowman, reply 5BUT.... Give it top/bottom positioning capability, and it'd be a whole different ballgame....

What do you mean?

Top or bottom of the screen.

Think taskbar replacement.

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Nimbin

Join Date 01/2006

+118

No thanks, I will pass on that suggestion.

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Uvah

Join Date 05/2006

+874

I'm using it but I haven't decided yet.

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karmat

Join Date 02/2007

+193

Quoting starkers,

reply 9

I'd create the correct path and everything but tiles repeatedly said the items could not be found, so I gave up

I had problems at first too until someone said to just hold down the Control key and drag file from windows explorer over to the tiles page you want it on.

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starkers

Join Date 05/2004

+1153

Quoting karmat,

reply 13

Quoting starkers, reply 9I'd create the correct path and everything but tiles repeatedly said the items could not be found, so I gave up

I had problems at first too until someone said to just hold down the Control key and drag file from windows explorer over to the tiles page you want it on.

Thanks, I'll give that a try... tiles just on one side instead of all over the screen might be better than what I've seen of the various 'tile' setups so far. I don't want to see my regular desktop blotted out by tiles [ala Metro] so this might be the go if I want to use tiles... and I mean if. All my shortcuts and more are all loaded into Winstep's Workshelf, and for my needs I'm yet to find a better system for organising my frequent and not so frequently used apps, folders, files, tasks.

Anyway, we'll see.

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I just don't see the point. I tried tiles and it seems like it's trying to do the job of the taskbar. The problem is the windows 7 taskbar does it better than tiles. I don't need live previews taking up space on my screen unless I'm, actually looking for something. The taskbar does live previews but only when I need them. The pages thing is nice, but i just don't see a need. It's like having virtual desktops, neat, but not really much point.

As for the smallest size, it is just the windows taskbar only uglier.

The paid items that you can add are also pretty useless. I'm glad the paid parts of tiles came with my OD sub or I'd have been mad to pay for that.

If someone can come up with a good reason for me to look at it again, or even an actual use for it, I'd be willing to try it again, but as it stands it's just not useful to me.

As for windows 8, I use Start8 or ViStart for the menu and the taskbar acts the same as in windows 7.

Maybe if Tiles was accessible via the windows key and could show more than one page at a time, then I'd think it was more useful. Still, I already have live previews on taskbar hover so I'd still not use that part of Tiles.

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