If you are on Windows 8 or a Windows Phone 8 you are probably wondering how to customize the tiles itself, e.g. how to span a photo across several tiles or similar.
Tile Genie: Adding Custom Background Images To Windows 8 Tiles
1. Step Head over to the official Windows store: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/tile-genie/126b30ef-8e5a-4c45-ae49-8252c49f10af – don’t be surprised if it automatically opens the store on your PC when visiting that page, that is an official store page.
2. Step Install the app
3. Step To open the app, simply search for Tile via CTRL + F:
4. Step Next, go download some cool wallpapers from our site or imgur or wherever you want. On imgur you can download entire albums via the Download link. Depending on the size you may have to wait a little:
5. Step Here’s a great collection of 150 stylish wallpapers
6. Step Extract the images and open the Tile Genie app again
7. Step Within the app, click Add Images and then browse to the folder where you extracted the wallpapers to. You may not want to click the link “Select all” because that may crash the app. Instead I recommend to pick a few wallpapers that you like
8. Step Depending on the number of images you selected this will take time to complete until the app has processed all images. Go grab a cup of coffee or tea, or both if you like. The app is basically processing all images to make them “tile”-able. Once they are correctly processed, the app can span the images across several of your Windows 8 tiles. Neat!
9. Step You can add more rows or columns using the plus and minus buttons
10. Step Add windows7themes.net into the website field or any other site you like
11. Finally, click Pin tiles to add them to your Start screen
12. Confirm that you allow Tile Genie to run in the background. Wait. This will take time again.
13. You should get a popup like this to pin the tile:
Now it’s up to you to experiment with this this tool and create some nice-looking grid tiles:
Windows Phone 8: Custom Tiles Maker (0.99€)
As a Windows Phone 8 user you should be using the Custom Tiles Maker app. This app is an innovative approach to fully customize your phone. You can basically create custom tiles for free or for 1€ you can create huge grids of tiles. You can use photos from your Facebook account if it’s linked, so that’s a plus.
This is not a five-star app, but it gets the job done if you have a spare buck. You can download it at http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/custom-tiles-maker/8ccbffa9-bb45-4ec3-ac68-f29d9c2d53d4
On your phone open the App Social app and enter Custom tiles. The app will be listed as one of the first entries
In order to purchase anything you need to have a contract. Prepaid will most likely not work, however Microsoft gift cards can be used as a payment option to buy apps.
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