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  • Enable secret animation in Windows 8 Start Screen

 #23886  by TheAslan
 14 Oct 2012, 21:12
We all know about the new Start Screen present in Microsoft's latest OS Windows 8. Its a replacement of the good old Start Menu of Windows OS. It shows tiles of installed and built-in programs with live previews.

When you boot into Windows 8 and login using your username and password, the Start Screen appears with a smooth animation but this animation is shown only once i.e. at first login. After that if you switch to Start Screen from Desktop or from any other app, the animation is not shown by Windows.

But there is a simple Registry tweak available which can be used to force Windows to show the animation each time you access Start Screen. There are also Registry tweaks available to customize this animation such as user picture, username and tile offset.

Following is a preview of the animation which you'll get after following this tutorial:

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If you want to enable this secret animation in Windows 8 Start Screen, follow these simple steps:

A. Registry Tweak to Enable Animation in Start Screen


1. Press "WIN+R" key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type regedit and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Grid

3. In right-side pane, create a new DWORD Launcher_SessionLoginAnimation_OnShow and set its value to 1

4. That's it. It'll immediately enable the animation in Start Screen.

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5. You can also customize this animation settings with the help of following additional DWORDs:

Launcher_SessionLogin_Icon_Offset - You can create this DWORD to set the offset for user picture shown at Start Screen. You can set its value to 1000.

Launcher_SessionLogin_IconText_Offset - You can create this DWORD to set the offset for user name shown at Start Screen. You can set its value to 2000.

Launcher_SessionLogin_IndividualTower_Offset - You can create this DWORD to control the "far" left corner of Start Screen from where Tiles will fly during animation. You can set its value to 1000.

Launcher_SessionLogin_Tower_Offset - You can create this DWORD to control the right position from where Tiles slides to their regular positions. You can set its value to 100.


The above DWORDs will also be created in the same place as mentioned in step 2.

B. Freeware to Enable Animation in Start Screen


The above Registry tweak was found by our friend "hb860" at Winaero and the same person has also developed a free portable utility to do the task automatically.

"Start Screen Animations Tweaker" is a free software for Windows 8 which allows you to enable the hidden secret animation in Start Screen. You just need to enable and customize the given options and then apply the changes.

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t also comes with an option "Recommended settings" which contains predefined optimal settings that can be used as a starting point. It also allows you to restore default settings if you don't like the new changes.

The utility works fine in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 8. You can download the software using following link:

Download Windows 8 Start Screen Animations Tweaker


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