Is it possible to rename apps downloaded from the Windows 8 Store?

Question

Is this level of customization exposed to the user? I know you can rename shortcuts by going to the Start Menu folder.

Answer 1

No, the name of the application is held in the package manifest. To quote the MS page

Package identity

Each package is defined by a globally unique identifier known as the package identity. The package identity consists of 5 tuples:

name The name of the package. For example, "myCompany.mySuite.myApp".

and

Package properties

Each package is described through its package properties, such as these:

DisplayName The friendly name of the app.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh464929.aspx

Answer 2

Name is part of the brand name or trademark is the recognition name so I really doubt that. But you can always hexedit their resources, but this might void the licence or some checksum checking, at least for me renaming the shortcut is mostly enough.