How to backup and restore Windows 8 start screen layout

Windows 8 Start Screen

Whether you use the Start screen not so much , you've probably spent some time setting it up just the way you like it. To save you from having to go through it again when you reinstall Windows or if your Start screen gets rearranged accidentally, you can back up your layout and restore it later. Here's how:

Step 1: Open the Run dialog box by hitting Windows key + R.

Step 2: Type, "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows" and hit Enter to open Windows Explorer to the location of the Start screen layout files.

Step 3: Copy the files, "appsFolder.itemdata-ms" and "appsfolder.itemdata-ms.bak" to your backup folder.

 If something happens to your Start screen layout and you want to restore it, just copy the backup files back to the original location and overwrite the files already in the folder.