[APP] Tile Mate (desktop app)

I use to use Oblytile to create and maintain my tiles and found that changing the background Images a pain if I want to move a tile (Using a cut up image as my tile backgrounds) so I wrote an app that organised my tile moves for me, unfortunately that was using Windows 8, so now I have moved to Windows 10 I found that the Tiles cannot no longer be created using the IE shortcut trick (eg the same way Oblytile does it).

So I modified my Tile Management app and have been using it (its ALPHA so if you want to play be prepared to see bugs) for a week so I thought I'd share it to see if people wanted to use it. It basically achieves the same as you had on Windows 8 using Oblytile BUT (and its a big butt) This is a desktop app, I capture the Alt+Windows key to display the form (the Top Most is not set at the moment so other windows CAN focus over the top, the app attempts to get around ti but during the debugging stage its a pain if the windows stays "On Top")

I have attached a few screen shots just to show how I have used it for myself, and as stated above its in Alpha, things like "single instance" and "Hidden program" does actually do anything yet. Also I haven't build a configuration section to add the background image to the form, or the tile groups, so if you want to change those you will need to adjust the lines in the XML file.

Tile Mate (without a background set)

Tile Mate (with background)

Tile Management form

Tile Icon Adjustment

Groups can be named by mousing over the header of the Group, Tile drag N Drop as well as re-sizing is all done in the same manner as the Metro Screen.
Clicking on the Settings bar icon in the top left corner will allow you to open the Tile Management screen to add/delete or adjust tiles.
Holding down the ALT key with the setting slider open displays the "Exit button", otherwise the form display is toggled by holding Alt and pressing the windows key (press and release the windows key while the alt key is down) .

Files:
Tile Mate will create a AppData folder:
C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Tile Mate\
(The Tile description xml file and All icons/border images will be moved into that folder)

Adding a background the form.
Once you have added at least one tile you can open the TileMate.xml file and modify the "<backgroundimage></backgroundimage>" .

You can also add Tile Group backgrounds within the "groups" section (at the top of the XML file)

Code:

---

<groups>
        <group>
                <groupid>GmvVcnweuc8A51Bm</groupid>
                <title>Work Applications</title>
        <backgroundimage offsetleft="0" offsettop="0" cropheight="0" cropwidth="0"  AspectRatio="False">C:\Users\Bruce\AppData\Roaming\Tile Mate\GmvVcnweuc8A51Bm\GmvVcnweuc8A51Bm.png</backgroundimage>
        <onlyundertiles>True</onlyundertiles>
        </group>
...
</groups>

---

Adjusting the width and height of the group background will crop the image to the specified size (the image will then be automatically re-sized and/or cropped to match your Tile Group size as needed)

Setting the "onlyundertiles" to "True" will cause the background Image to only be shown where the tiles are. As such otherwise the image is applied to the group background

Tile Mate 0.2a

Please experiment, and let me know your thoughts. Although I did write this for myself I'm interested in feedback.

Attached Thumbnails

 


 


 


 


 


 


 

Attached Files

Tile Mate_0.2a.zip - [Click for QR Code] (1.32 MB)