Applying an overlay on top of the Metro UI

Question

Hello,

I'm in the very early stages of formulating a user experience I would like to enable in the Metro UI. There are two possible functionalities I would like to enable. When the user right clicks on a tile in the Start UI, I would like to:

Option 1: overlay the UI with a ring that encompasses the tile and contains custom selectable options.

Option 2: add additional custom options to the panel that appears at the bottom of the screen.

For example, from "Start" when you right click on "Control Panel" the options menu at the bottom has: unpin. When you right click on "Internet Explorer" the options menu at the bottom has: advanced and unpin. I would like to add a custom option (either as a halo around the tile, or on the options panel) so the user can invoke a custom action that I would like to enable.

Is this possible? Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dave

Answer 1

This thread was created in the Windows Developer Preview: General OS questions forum; the Microsoft Moderation team has moved this thread to the UI Design for apps forum.

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Marilyn

Answer 2

Hi Dave,

Those interactions are controlled by the system currently and not under your control.  Settings are activated by the application and you should use that paradigm to make changes for your application.  Control Panel and Internet Explorer are different based on the type of application.  Desktop application will get the Pin and advanced items.  You may be able to add information under advanced.  I will see what I can find out for you but we have not announced any of the APIs that your desktop application would use to leverage the new APIs yet!

-Jeff

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Jeff Sanders (MSFT)