Can I put documents onto the Windows 8 Metro Start Menu?

Question

You can search for a document and click to open it, but is there a way to put a document you are working with on the Start Menu (Metro UI) for quick selection?

Solution 1

Here is an article that explains how to add a shutdown tile to the Metro UI, you could possibly add documents to the same location.

Move this shortcut into C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs (the location of the start menu). Anything in here can be pinned to the Start Screen.

Solution 2

You could use a third-party application such as Pin to 8

In the screenshot below, I've added an SQL dump file as an example.

Solution 3

Drop a bath file that starts your document in C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

This is a hack that may not work later. There are a lot of complains about Windows 8 adding ALL shortcuts installed by programs to the metro start screen, including uninstall shortcuts. Microsoft may do something about that.

Solution 4

This worked for me. Create a shortcut to the application in quotes followed by the location of the document in quotes. Put the shortcut in the location identified above.

Solution 5

You need an application to create secondary tiles for documents and folders.

There are already a lot of other ways to open them:

• Find them on your desktop.
• Find them using WIN+F.
• Open them from your library.
• Open them through your application.
• Open them through the jump list of your application.
• ...

Also, it's quite a shift from the intended paradigm, that's why Microsoft will not implement this...

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Comments

[Admin]

@Rich Melton: That brings up a good point. While consumption of online feeds seems to be the rage on the MetroUI, I wonder where local documents fits into this picture. Before, I could create libraries of each project I was working on, which weeded me away from the hierarchical filesystem. Now, I'm not so sure where Libraries fit in. . .

[Admin]

@surfasb - That's something I was thinking also. Homegroups too? As this is technical preview, and not a feature complete release, I'm curious to see what the Beta shows up with.

[Admin]

@Rich Melton: Yeah, that reminds me. I have to test the homegroups. It would be a shame if Library support dropped to the waist side. . .

[Admin]

@surfasb - Yup, I have a corporate customer who I've been persuading to use the feature to help mitigate some IT department issues with backing up data. We'll see.

[Admin]

@surfasb - Homegroups is in the metro control panel. When you search for documents, pictures, etc... you do get a title that looks like it should be able to be pinned, but it doesn't stay. Given the nature of the developer preview's focus on app development and Sinofsky's comments about the amount of missing features (eg: Paragon), I'm speculating that the beta will clear this issue up.

[Ritch Melton]

I can add applications. Since Applications, Settings, and Files all show up under search, I thought there should be a way. I don't know though.

[Ritch Melton]

Good idea, but that doesn't seem to do it.

[Moab]

Maybe it has to be a shortcut to a document?

[Ritch Melton]

Yea, that's been tried see the existing answer. While watching the build conference sessions, I've been looking at what is on other's start menus. There's def a feature disparity between this build and what is installed on the Microsoft machines at the conference.

[Tamara Wijsman]

The Metro UI internally follows the shortcut and confirms it is an application, to prevent non-application tiles.

[Tamara Wijsman]

This won't be implemented, you can't start documents or files.

[Ritch Melton]

Do you have documentation that states that I must have 'secondary tiles' for documents, I haven't seen it or heard it mentioned? The rest of the post is subjective.

[Tamara Wijsman]

@RitchMelton: They explicitly discourage it for that reason. Note how their guidelines on tiles are all referring to applications. Nothing I said is subjective, but rather the way things are designed and is the intention of Microsoft if you have followed the various presentations available through the Build application, for your ease of access. Perhaps one could write a Metro application that shows recent files and folders?

[Tamara Wijsman]

Tiles & Notifications - Slide 6 says that the Customer goal is: "Start is my space for the apps I love."

[Joey]

Moab, because shutdown.exe is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an application, not a document. I'd be a little scared it a document could shut down my computer, too.

[Daniel Schilling]

But you can start documents. From the command line, I can type "start C:\Users\dschilling\Documents\my-spreadsheet.xlsx", and Excel opens, displaying the spreadsheet I specified.

[pratnala]

Not what the OP is asking.