Remove and Retrieve Application Tiles in Windows 8

Introduction

Windows 8 comes with many features and a better look & feel for user interaction in applications; one of the features is the Metro start screen. It contains a number of application tiles on the screen, most of which are usually not needed to be shown. When you first get started with Windows 8, you will be moving around the application tiles in the Metro Start Screen. You might also want to remove some or most of them. Even if you decide to keep all the default tiles, you will still accommodate junk tiles from apps that you install and having to delete them one by one isn't going to make your day any productive. Deleting multiple tiles at once is not difficult; all you need to do is hold down the Ctrl key as you select apps. Apps are selected by right-clicking them and the option on the horizontal bar will change to accommodate your selections.

Hold down the Ctrl key and start right-clicking the tiles; a check mark will appear on each tile that you select. In some cases holding down the Ctrl Key is not necessary. You can hit the escape key to remove all selections or you can right-click an app again, while still holding the Ctrl key to unselect that one app tile. When you select just one app, several options appear on the horizontal bar (at the bottom of the screen), but when you select several apps, the options are limited to just two: Unpin from Start and Clear Selection. Click Unpin from Start to remove the selected tiles (this will not uninstall the app), or click Clear selection to unselected all apps.

Removing application tiles from the Metro Start Screen

• Here we select Internet Explorer application tiles for removal from the Metro screen; just right-click with the mouse.

 

• Two options will be shown in the horizontal taskbar: Unpin and Uninstall; click on unpin.  screen.

 

• You will see the application tiles have been removed from Metro:

 

Retrieving application tiles from the Metro Start Screen

• Just click the start button.

 

• Click on search; all application tiles will be open.

 

• Find the application you want to retrieve.
• Right-click on it; again two options will be shown on the horizontal taskbar Advance and Pin.

 

• Click on pin. Now you will see your application tiles have been retrieved on the Metro screen.

Resources 

Tiles in Windows Phone 7
Tiles Control With Fun in Windows Phone 7
Changing Application Tile in Windows Phone 7
Tile Brush in Silverlight 3 Application in Blend 3