Windows 8 Start Screen – Extracting Windows 8 Start Screen Patterns

start-menuwindows 8

Is there any way to extract the Windows 8 Start Screen patterns, in order to use them as standalone wallpapers on other systems?

For example see this screenshot:

Windows 8 RTM Start Screen

I am interested in the dark blue background. I heard that this background is somehow adapted to your chosen color theme. So many different variations should exist.

Engadget has an article here briefly talking about these background patterns and the different color schemes. They call them "personalization tattoos".

Changing Windows 8 Start Screen Color Scheme and Pattern

Update:

I found the following page/guide:
http://www.askvg.com/how-to-customize-or-change-start-screen-green-background-start-button-tiny-start-menu-and-other-metro-ui-stuff-in-windows-8/

This looks a very good way to achieve my goal. Unfortunately the guide seems to be dated.

I tried to find shsxs.dll on the RTM of Windows 8 without much luck. It looks like Microsoft changed the way they handle the background image. The file is nowhere to be found…

I also looked into uxtheme.dll, but it doesn't contain any interesting images.

Any new ideas? Any other *.dll with might be of interest here?

Best Answer

I finally found the solution!

All the required information can be found on this page:

http://code-bude.net/2012/08/31/anleitung-benutzerdefinierte-hintergrundbilder-in-windows-8/(German)

Basically the new file containing the images is imageres.dll. Opening it with ResourceHacker reveals all the wallpapers in the PNG section.

The backgrounds begin with Resource 10000. For each pattern(and some colors?) there are 5 images each.

  • 10000 - Small preview in settings
  • 10001 - Background for low resolution devices
  • 10002 - Background for mid resolution devices
  • 10003 - Background for high resolution devices
  • 10004 - Large preview in settings

For example exporting 10003 creates a 3000x800px PNG:

10003.png

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