Day 8 of the 30 Days with Surface Pro series is devoted to customizing the look of the Windows 8 Start screen (also known as the Modern UI, and also still as the Metro UI despite Microsoft officially dropping that name).
I’m a bit of a neat freak when it comes to the desktop. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Windows PC, a Mac OS X system, or a smartphone or tablet. I don’t want unnecessary icons or shortcuts cluttering things up, and I like for things to be organized a certain way.
Windows 8 provides a range of color schemes, and default background images to use with the Start Screen. As a bonus, the changes I make on the Surface Pro will also be automatically synced and reflected on any other Windows 8 system I log into with my Microsoft account credentials–so I don’t have to go through the process of customizing each Windows 8 device separately.
The colors and background are just one facet, though. I also had to do some rearranging and housecleaning of the tiles displayed on the Start screen. Some programs add a bunch of new tiles willy nilly without asking for permission–and they’re typically for useless utilities or Readme files.
Check out Surface Pro, Day 8: Configuring the Start screen for more about how to go about customizing the look and feel of Windows 8.
