How to: Set the Initial Properties for the Application Tile for Windows Phone
March 22, 2012
Every application has one Application Tile. You can set the default Title and BackgroundImage for the Application Tile in your project so that upon your application's installation, the Application Tile will already have a custom BackgroundImage and Title. If you do not use the following steps to set up these custom values, a default Title and BackgroundImage will be associated with your Application Tile.
For more information about Tiles, see Tiles Overview for Windows Phone.
Your Application Tile should adhere to the UI guidelines described in the Start Tiles section of Essential Graphics, Visual Indicators, and Notifications for Windows Phone.
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Create a new Windows Phone application in the Windows Phone SDK.
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In Solution Explorer, right-click the name of your application and click Properties.
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Update the Title and Background image fields in the Tile options section of the page. The background image must be selected from a drop-down list box. For a new background image to display in the drop-down list box, you must add a .jpg or .png image file to the project in the root directory as Build Action type Content, in the Properties pane for the image.
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The Count, BackBackgroundImage, BackTitle, and BackContent properties can be given their initial values only by editing the WMAppManifest.xml file directly. The WMAppManifest.xml file is located in the project under the Properties node. You can edit the Tokens element of the file to set these values. For more information, see Application Manifest File for Windows Phone.
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To test the results, debug the application by pressing F5. The emulator will start. Navigate to your application in the Application List. Tap and hold on your application and then select pin to start from the menu. The Application Tile will be pinned to Start with the properties you assigned to it.
