How to change tiles' background color in Windows 8.1 start screen?

Search out one of my previous posts here for how to solve this problem for individual applications with manifest files.

I note that Microsoft Office has now been updated with manifests, so the tile problem for Office applications is fixed (for Office 365 users, at least).

I am working on an automated solution which I will post in my SkyDrive Public folder in the near future (I am currently doing it with batch files, but it is not user friendly enough for general distribution).

Thanks Paul. You mean I have to create a .VisualElementsManifest.xml file for EACH app listed in start screen? O_O

It seems that MS programmers loose their skills - to change a tile background color I have to perform a Linux-like witchery (\/) <- facepalm

Unfortunately, it is not entirely straightfoward.

If you create a manifest file for each application, some will not work for a number of reasons (protected files, some shortcut formats not supported for colouring, certain command line syntaxes that don't work, etc). Selecting a color can be fiddly even for one tile, as the shade only has to be out by a little to be seen as a clash with either the icon or a neighbouring tile.

I've spent quite a bit of time sorting out these problems and can now change the background of all my Desktop application tiles individually or in bulk with batch files, but color selection is too painful to do more than specify a few applications and set the rest to a single color (or leave as is). In practice, it is still a major improvement.

Having figured out all the requirements and "gotchas", I was planning on building a small .NET app that did the same job as the batch files, but with a smart interface for bulk and individual configuration (or any combination), which requires no hooks into the OS and makes fully reversable changes taking into account the tweaks to be made for all the special cases.

I am hoping to have it in the Windows Store in a week or three. It will be likely free, voluntary donation-ware or a couple of dollars per user (still considering the options). There are enough planned features to stage three releases with refinements.

In the meantime, I would suggest you limit fixes to addressing the odd application where the tile color masks the icon or is unbearable, as an effortless-to-apply solution is not very far away.

I would have had it done by now, but I wanted to see what changes came about for 8.1 GA, and get my workstation rebuilt with 8.1 and VS2013 before starting anything new. Prototype in batch file exists now, has been tested for a few weeks and works very well with absolutely pleasing results. Coding in .NET is underway this week. I will post on Twitter and PinkAxolotl.com when it is ready. Should I fail in this task for unforeseen reasons, I will release the batch files and people can edit them to their liking.

Manifest files for all the 300+ silent installers I maintain? Tiles are not versatile and now even less so. Additionally, if you want a certain program to get a shortcut on your desktop you have to go into ProgramData folders to create shortcuts. Why can't Microsoft figure out how to create shortcuts from tiles since the tiles refer to the programs also? Really, all this is ridiculous and it has no working chance and will/should be looked back on as one of the Win8.x failures. Further, now applications that install (not talking about faux Store apps) won't create shortcut in the Start screen anymore either, so you have to add them to Start manually, one by one. This may seem like a good idea when you have no idea what you're doing on a PC (yes, Win8 is dumbing down computing a lot) but when you run a tight ship and are a power user you will find everything is now harder for you, but the options for you to change behaviors have been capped too. So like I said, one step forward, two steps back. There's also no way to add something to the charmbar, like a direct shutdown button so only one click would be needed. Now 3 are needed... Etc.

Just being able to change them to grey would be very welcome.