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Start Screen

142

What's on your Windows 10 Mobile Start screen, Mark Guim?

By Mark Guim, Monday, Sep 21, 2015 at 12:44 pm EDT

I've been mostly happy with the Lumia 830 after installing Window 10 Mobile preview. Things are moving along, and I think that it is good enough as a daily driver. I've already said goodbye to Windows Phone 8.1 and will be using Windows 10 Mobile from now on. Here's what I have on my Start screen.

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Microsoft will bring transparent tiles to Windows 10 for phones

By Harish Jonnalagadda, Thursday, Feb 12, 2015 at 10:59 pm EST

If you installed the Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones, you may have noticed that the start screen renders tiles differently from what we've seen in Windows Phone 8.1. Tiles that use the theme color were transparent in Windows Phone 8.1, allowing you to see the background image, but in Windows 10 for phones, the tiles are merely translucent. If you're a fan of transparent tiles, you're in luck, as Microsoft's Joe Belfiore announced that the feature will be making its way to Windows 10 for phones.

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Here is how to get back the Modern Start Screen in Windows 10 Technical Preview

By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Oct 1, 2014 at 1:51 pm EDT

Today, Microsoft unveiled their Windows Technical Preview for the new Windows 10 operating system. There are obviously plenty of questions from users about upgrading to the Preview, and one of those has to deal with the Modern Start Screen.

If like me, you installed the Technical Preview but you would like to get back the Modern Start Screen, here is a quick and easy way to make that happen.

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8.1 HD Tiles, delivering transparent Live Tiles to your Windows Phone

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Jun 17, 2014 at 11:19 am EDT

8.1 HD Tiles is a Windows Phone 8.1 app that will let you add transparent Live Tiles to your Start Screen. The app not only offers transparent tiles for two hundred apps but 8.1 HD Tiles also offers tile options for settings, websites and blank tiles that can be used as spacers or to categorize groups of Windows Phone Live Tiles.

The app is compatible with Windows Phone 8 devices but some of the system settings will not be available and the tiles are not transparent. 8.1 HD Tiles is an easy way to add transparent Live Tiles and a nice addition to the Windows Phone 8.1 app library.

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Theme+ lets you create some vivid and colorful backgrounds for Windows Phone 8.1

By George Ponder, Wednesday, May 14, 2014 at 8:50 am EDT

With the release of Windows Phone 8.1, under the Preview for Developers program, we have seen a number of apps surface in the Windows Phone Store focused on creating custom Start Screen backgrounds. Each app seems to follow the same pattern of having a simple interface and plenty of creative styles.

Theme+ is one of the more recent additions to this genre of apps and falls in line with those that have come before. Theme+ has a simple interface that allows you to create custom designs that can add a dash of color to your Windows Phone 8.1 Start Screen.

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How often do you change your Windows Phone Start Screen?

By George Ponder, Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at 2:36 pm EDT

Our Windows Phone Start Screen is an easy way to make our phones our own. Even before Windows Phone 8.1 introduced transparent Live Tiles and Start Screen background images, through third party apps and in-house settings you could customize things quite a bit.

There is a Windows Phone Central Forums discussion, started by Forum Member Sir William Wiener that asks how often do you change your Start Screen background images and accent colors? Sir William finds himself tweaking the Start Screen a lot while the habits range from daily changes to weekly to "every once in a while".

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What's on your Windows Phone Start screen?

By Abhishek Baxi, Monday, May 5, 2014 at 6:23 pm EDT

A lot of people have asked us about how the Start screens on our Windows Phone devices look like. Daniel started a Start screen layouts series here, and other Windows Phone Central authors followed him. There’s also this popular thread on the Windows Phone Central forums where everybody is sharing their Windows Phone Start screens, and some of them are also sharing the images they are using so you could replicate their creativity.

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Top Windows Phone 8.1 Start Screen Apps

By George Ponder, Friday, May 2, 2014 at 8:24 am EDT

Windows Phone Central App Roundup: Windows Phone 8.1 Start Screen Apps

While the Windows Phone Start Screen has never really sucked wind, the features the Windows Phone 8.1 update brings to the table takes the Start Screen to a new level. We still have Live Tiles that can deliver bullets of information to keep us up to date on everything from the weather, our schedule, stock prices, sports scores and more.

But with Windows Phone 8.1, our ability to customize our Start Screen has increased with transparent tiles, custom background images and the option of adding a third column of tiles to devices who previously lacked this feature. This week's roundup will focus on Windows Phone apps that will help you make the most of your Windows Phone Start Screen. From adding transparent tiles to creating a custom tile color, these apps can help you make your Windows Phone a little bit more your own.

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Start Perfect, your one stop app for custom Windows Phone 8.1 Start Screens

By George Ponder, Monday, Apr 21, 2014 at 2:34 pm EDT

The developers of Transparency Tiles have released a premium app that throws just about every tool you will need to customize your Windows Phone 8.1 Start Screen. Start Perfect has Transparency Tiles built in but also adds additional customization features such as transparent tiles for websites, custom tile names, custom background colors and more.

Start Perfect eliminates the need for multiple apps to get your Windows Phone Start Screen just right. It makes a very nice first impression and worth looking into if you want to do more with your Start Screen customizations.

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Transparency Tiles updated, lets you pin clear Instagram, Foursquare, Facebook and more to your 8.1 screen

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Apr 18, 2014 at 12:39 pm EDT

Since Windows Phone 8.1’s preview release this week, you folks can’t enough of the new Start screen backgrounds. And here you thought you’d hate them ;)

We covered a cool little app dubbed Transparency Tiles earlier this week, as it’s used to re-create Tiles for your 8.1 Start screen for native and popular apps. On first release it covered just Xbox Games, Music and Video, but we told you more apps would be coming. Since that time, the app has had a few updates, with the latest just going live a few moments ago.

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What’s on your Windows Phone Start Screen, George Ponder?

By George Ponder, Thursday, Apr 17, 2014 at 1:23 pm EDT

One of the key attractions for the Windows Phone platform is the Live Tiles. It allows you get a glance at key information such as new emails, the current temperature, your next appointment or sports scores. The recent Windows Phone 8.1 update only adds to this attraction with new features such as transparent tiles, a third-column option, and a few new apps that liven up your Start Screen.

Continuing the series on what is on our Windows Phone Start Screen, it is my turn to share.

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Start Screen Customizer for Windows Phone 8.1, let the creativity begin!

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Apr 15, 2014 at 5:38 pm EDT

One of the fun features of Windows Phone 8.1 is the ability to add a background image to your Start Screen and let it shine through transparent Live Tiles.

There is a new Windows Phone 8.1 app in the Windows Phone Store that lets you take this customization one step further. Start Screen Customizer provides you with the ability to choose a solid colored background or adjust the tones of a background image to give your Start Screen a little more pop.

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73

What’s on your Windows Phone Start screen, Rich Edmonds?

By Rich Edmonds, Wednesday, Apr 9, 2014 at 3:44 pm EDT

The Start Screen is a unique way to personalize your Windows Phone. Not only do consumers have access to (and can customize) app launches, but there's the possibility to pin Live Tiles that update with relevant information for apps. Part of the Start Screen layout series from Windows Phone Central staff, it's now my turn to share what I have pinned to my Start Screen and how I've configured the layout to suit my needs.

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646

Let us know if you love or hate the new Start screen in Windows Phone 8.1

By Sam Sabri, Friday, Mar 28, 2014 at 3:12 pm EDT

We are now less than a week from officially seeing Windows Phone 8.1 for the first time. The unveiling is happening next week at Microsoft’s Build conference in San Francisco. Not only do we get to see the new mobile operating system from Microsoft, but Nokia is expected to announce two new Windows Phone 8.1 devices – the Lumia 630 (Moneypenny) and the Lumia 930 (Martini).

We’ve seen quite a bit of Windows Phone 8.1 over the past few weeks. Generally we’ve seen the Windows Phone community pleased and excited about all the upcoming changes. But there’s one feature that has a lot of you divided. That’s the new Start screen on Windows Phone 8.1. We’ve all wanted a little more customization options for the part of Windows Phone we spend a lot of time looking at. Microsoft is adding background image support, but in a way not a lot of people expected. Do you like it?

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New Windows Phone 8.1 video reveals Start screen backgrounds, parallax view

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Mar 28, 2014 at 2:23 pm EDT

As we reported earlier, the leaks for Windows Phone 8.1 are coming in at a steady pace now. Following up on this morning’s video that showed off the new OS is one focusing on the new Start screen options.

Not much has happened with the Start screen since Windows Phone 8 was announced, but with 8.1 users will have at least two new features to help customize and personalize their phones: Start background and Show more Tiles.

As revealed in this admittedly poorly shot video, users can choose from a pre-selection of background images for their Start screens. Alternatively, users can select photos from their Facebook, OneDrive, or camera roll as well. Perhaps the neat thing is the parallax movement when the user scrolls, giving the Tiles a true “windows” feel to them, much like looking outside a window pane.

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Windows Phone 8.1 custom images for Live Tiles on the Start screen revealed

By Daniel Rubino, Saturday, Mar 1, 2014 at 2:06 pm EST

Windows Phone 8.1 is only a few weeks away. So with that, let’s jump onto the latest rumor floating around today, namely the one dealing with background images on the Start screen.

There was some confusion about this feature – codenamed ‘shadowbox’ by Microsoft –with people believing that it was the background of the Start screen that would be skinned. As we cautioned in original report, that was close but not exactly how it will be (our lede image was the clue).

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Windows Phone 8.1 may get backgrounds on the Start screen, three column support

By Daniel Rubino, Saturday, Feb 15, 2014 at 1:23 pm EST

More information from the Windows Phone 8.1 beta SDK leak hint at some forthcoming features for the OS update, due to be announced in April. The info comes from LiveSino, who found references to numerous unannounced references to features in the SDK, hinting that such customizations may be in the final build for customers.

The idea of giving customers more options to customize their Windows Phone has been a hot topic for customers for years. Currently on the Start screen, users are only allowed to select from a pre-selected range of hues, with no backgrounds, leading some to call the OS ‘boring’.

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