Backup and restore a Windows 8 start screen tiles

For any reason, you may want to restore the layout of the tiles on a Windows 8 start screen. Windows takes a snapshot of the layout and stores it to a file which is called:

appsFolder.itemdata-ms

This file is located into the following directory:

%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\ 

When changes are made, a backup file is created with .bak extension.

Note: If you are using roaming profiles, Windows copies this “appsFolder.itemdata-ms” file to the root of the profile:

So if you want to restore this file:

1. You must have a backup of this file or you can use the “appsFolder.itemdata-ms.bak” file.
2. Run the following script to restore the layout:

@ Echo off 

REM Delete the current layout
Del %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms 
Del %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms.bak 

REM Restore the layout from the backup file. 
REM Do not forget to change the path and the name of your backup file "Backup_appsFolder.itemdata-ms"
Copy %FromYourBackupFolder%\Backup_appsFolder.itemdata-ms %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms 
Copy %FromYourBackupFolder%\Backup_appsFolder.itemdata-ms.bak %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\appsFolder.itemdata-ms.bak

REM Kill "explorer.exe" process
tskill explorer

echo "Your start menu configuration has been restored!" 
Pause

This script does not require admin rights.

This script does not uninstall your apps.

 

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