Okay, so I removed all the tiles on the Metro Start Screen so I could use it as a glorified full-screen search engine. However, I've changed my mind and want to have the apps to the original way they were. I tried pinning the apps to the start menu again however I've realised that that doesn't work - You can't put tiles underneath other tiles, and it ends up just creating a long vertical list of apps which is horrid to use. So I was wondering is there a way to restore the default settings without refreshing/resetting the W8 settings? Thanks.
Just look up a screenshot of the default start screen and pin the default apps one by one. It shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes to do this...
Gotcha, sounds like a problem. When you say without refreshing/resetting, are you trying to avoid using System Restore ?
Backup your user profile, start the default Administrator user profile and remove your current one. Then restore it. If this doesn't help then I think your installation is broken. Try using 'sfc /scannow' in an administrator command prompt. I don't think it's possible to restore the start screen to default. If it is then I don't know how.
What about the 'Refresh your PC ..' option in the Control Panel? It's in the 'General ' section , that might sort it out! Un-tested by me I should point out ...
"Without refreshing" Me thinks he knows how to fix the problem using the Microsoft approved methods (refresh / system restore etc) I suspect he is looking to figure out which registry setting or whatever is really causing the issue. FYI, to the op. Maybe you want to install Windows 8 in a second VM with working Tiles. Then export both the users profile Hives and start comparing.
Simple... Create a new user account. Another approach, copy the file that tells how the start screen is customized from the admin account.