Windows 8 Pin METAs

By  on  

Windows 8 allows for adding websites as apps (or maybe "bookmarks" is a better term) to the home screen, much in the vein that iOS allows users to do the same.  Like iOS devices, Windows 8 allows  users to accomplish this same task using custom META tags embedded within the page HTML:

<meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#FF0000" />
<meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="/windows8-icon.png" />

The image size should be 144x144 and you'll want to define a custom background color with the META tag above.  Tags like these are invaluable -- very little HTML to add but a giant convenience to users.  Remember that the easier it is to get to your site, the more likely they will come back often!

Recent Features

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Save Web Form Content Using Control + S

    We've all used word processing applications like Microsoft Word and if there's one thing they've taught you it's that you need to save every few seconds in anticipation of the inevitable crash. WordPress has mimicked this functionality within their WYSIWYG editor and I use it...

  • By
    Elegant Overflow with CSS Ellipsis

    Overflow with text is always a big issue, especially in a programmatic environment. There's always only so much space but variable content to add into that space. I was recently working on a table for displaying user information and noticed that longer strings were...

Discussion

  1. MaxArt

    I wonder if there are HTTP headers that allows to do the same.

  2. How do you actually go about adding the website as an app in windows 8?

  3. Stephen

    Even though we *can* do this… it really bugs me that we have 8 different ways to set this kind of stuff per browser/device.

    IMHO, it would have been much better if all browsers used the same “link” “favicon” in PNG/GIF/JPG format… and it had attributes for different size icons (device/browser to choose the best size for its needs)

    Instead we have IE searching the at the server root for an icon in *.ico format, special meta tags for iOS, different tags for Windows8, etc. From a *lightweight* mobile perspective… cramming umpteen meta tags in to handle all the potential devices is totally counter productive!

    Oh well… I guess this is progress!

  4. why iOS allows users to do the same.

  5. Magnus

    I agree with Stephen, with every other OS and social media site adding their own meta tags it’s bloating up the element.

  6. Magnus

    That should have read head element.

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!