Hello Dear Community!
I have now almost decided to move from WinMo to Android. I choose it because of its supposed customisability. So, getting back to the main question: I don't want to do anything aggressive to Sense, like disabling or removing it. I just want to know if its no problem to download and install a different launcher (like ADW) and use it instead of Sense (or "on top of" Sense).
BTW, regarding Widgets: As I understand, I can run both HTC and "plain" Android widgets when using Sense, but I cannot run HTC widgets on non-sense launchers, right?
Thanks for the reply!
You can use ADW or LP, and I believe you're right about the HTC widgets, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
Yes, I installed LP and used it for a while, though eventually went back to Sense. the OS will give you the option to set either Sense or LP or any other launcher as the default action for the home button once installed. You can switch them by going into manage applications and press "clear defaults" for whatever launcher is set as the default and it will ask you again when you press home.
xerawx said:
Yes, I installed LP and used it for a while, though eventually went back to Sense. the OS will give you the option to set either Sense or LP or any other launcher as the default action for the home button once installed. You can switch them by going into manage applications and press "clear defaults" for whatever launcher is set as the default and it will ask you again when you press home.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for a very practical and informative reply!
Alternatively, you should be able to flash the G2 ROM very soon (if you can't already) as we now have permanent root. That will give you the stock Android launcher.
It is a bit disappointing that I can't use the Sense widgets with Launcher Pro, but I'll get over it. The Sense dock is pretty, but useless compared to a loaded up LP dock with swipe actions.
"Launcher Pro +" adds its own sense like widgets which are very good.
Does anyone know if you can flash and reinstall sense fresh? The point being to get rid of all this bloatware that my carrier added my phone.
J.Coffey said:
Does anyone know if you can flash and reinstall sense fresh? The point being to get rid of all this bloatware that my carrier added my phone.
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Why would you want to reinstall just Sense for that ? You can just disable the bloatware if you want, or flash a different ROM (e.g. if it's a Bell ROM then you can flash the standard ROM, see the dev forum for details).
Alternatively, I'm sure it will be very soon that someone will post up a way to flash the ROM from the G2, which doesn't have Sense in it.
Related
I just started using GDE and have changed it to my default home, I'm asking if there is a way to block it from starting up, and if not a way to uninstall it altogether.
On a second question is there a way to use the HTC widgets like peep, home, ect.. and put them on GDE or home?
as with completely removing sense i dont know if its possible but sense ui is required for the widgets
1. click on search
2. in the drop down menu type "How to remove Sense UI / Rosie"
3. second result
when you install another home program dont you get a pop up that asks you which home screen you want to use? did it to me when i installed open home, u can click on a check box to make it default
98classic said:
when you install another home program dont you get a pop up that asks you which home screen you want to use? did it to me when i installed open home, u can click on a check box to make it default
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yes it did, i chose gde and i prefer it over sense, check out some of my screens over in the http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=584379&page=5 thread. only gripe is i cant use all those nice htc widgets
Apparently to your misery of missing the htc widgets in alternative home launcher htc widget are not classed as android widgets they are specifically written to run on sense.
Market widgets run on android so they can be shown on other home launcher, only shortcuts of htc apps applies but that's not you want and you get the point overall htc widgets and htc sense are made for htc phones.
I agree sense is too simplistic on the downside and I too use a market home launcher.
Maybe try an AOSP custom rom, usually come looking like the original android interface.
If your on a deodoxed rom yes it is possible to delete sense all together u need rootexplorer and an already installed home alternative such as gde then u go to root explorer then system apps then delete rosie utility apk that's the launcher sense uses then u can go through and delete all the HTC apks and yes if u delete the HTC lockscreen you'll be on the default android lockscreen I was able to do this on nfinites sense froyo rom
Sent from my HTC Hero CDMA using XDA App
Is there a way to turn off sense or maybe install APK's to replace the crapware. I'd like to get the standard android Contacts app instead of this pain to use sense version.
Thanks for and information, I'll be eagerly awaiting root and CM5
I also want to remove the UI tmobile has placed on it.
Just want android 2.1 vanialla or with htc sense
You can always choose a launcher program. helix launcher, adw launcher, and launcherpro are the 3 best. I use adw launcher. helix is the only one in the market right now, the others you have to get apk file. adw launcher has the apk on their website now since google is haveing market issues. This will give you a great stock-like experience and can be customized a little beyond stock which is nice but you don't have to if you want it very stock.
there is a way to sort of remove sense but once you do it i dont know if you can get it back without hard reseting it. Go to settings/applications/manage applications then find htc sense click on it then clear the memory after that push the home key and it should give you the option to pick the regular android launcher.
disclaimer this worked on older versions of sense ie the 1.5 based heros have not tried on the slide yet
http://www.androidspin.com/2010/01/25/remove-sense-defaults-to-speed-up-your-phone/
neva dinova said:
there is a way to sort of remove sense but once you do it i dont know if you can get it back without hard reseting it. Go to settings/applications/manage applications then find htc sense click on it then clear the memory after that push the home key and it should give you the option to pick the regular android launcher.
disclaimer this worked on older versions of sense ie the 1.5 based heros have not tried on the slide yet
http://www.androidspin.com/2010/01/25/remove-sense-defaults-to-speed-up-your-phone/
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Click to collapse
this does not work on slide it does notihng
hansalvato said:
this does not work on slide it does notihng
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Click to collapse
Actually it does, it resets your quicklinks or shortcuts on your screen.
EDIT:
If you changed your homepage from the default 5 screen to 7 and did the procedure mentioned above, your homepage will revert back to 5 screens even if you changed your settings in the "Personalize" to 7 pages. I tried it on mine just to see the effect and ended up hard resetting my device to get it back to actually seeing 7 screens. Please correct me if it's only me, a bug or if anyone has a better solution than doing a hard reset.
Hey all,
So I am not new to Android, but I am new to using a launcher or anything other than regular apps. I want to try the ADW launcher, but I have some questions since I don't really know anything about how launchers work.
Can someone explain to me the very basics of what installing a launcher will do? Also, if I don't like it or don't understand it, can I uninstall and not have to hard reset?
Is there a how-to for using ADW?
Thanks ahead of time!
Install it thru the Android market place just search adw launcher and if you don't like it uninstall like any other app from the Android market
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Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide
So I can just uninstall and not have to do any reset?
Can you explain to me what a launcher does (briefly)?
Sorry for such a basic question, but hey we all have to learn sometime.
Thanks!
go hear its anderwebs dev page the dev for adw launcher. it should be able to tell you everything about the launcher and show you some picture of what it looks like and what it does. but yea just install from android market and if you dont like just uninstall like any other app without having to reset your device just go to market/downloads then uninstall.
http://jbthemes.com/anderweb/
hears a video of it to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gRgpuQE_k&feature=fvst
the version in this video is 0.7.1 and it is now on 0.7.8 so theres been plenty of new features since then
I really appreciate the info. I installed it this morning, but couldn't even figure out how to change the settings. I read the instructions on adw's page so I might try again.
My calendar widget wouldn't work and there were also only 5 screens instead of 7. Can you have 7?
Maybe I need to mess with it more. I guess I'm just not sure of the benefits of using it. Will it help my battery last longer? Will the MTS be faster? Or is it more of an aesthetic thing?
thnx
I didn't have any problems with it other than lag here and there. It might just need the dev to do a bit of fine tunning, or could be me with my luck. Nice interface. Good features, and a lot of flexibility. I do like sense though and I think I will just deal with all of TMobiles extra crap for the time being. All in all a great replacement though.
Press the menu key while on the home screen, then you can select the ADW settings. You can have 7 screens if you want.
The HTC Sense widgets will not work outside of the sense launcher.
Etype R said:
Press the menu key while on the home screen, then you can select the ADW settings. You can have 7 screens if you want.
The HTC Sense widgets will not work outside of the sense launcher.
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what he said
also keep in mind that My Modes function will not work with a launcher program. I tried Helix, ADW, and launcherpro and since they seem to be just a "skin" so the apps don't rearrange and stuff when you change modes. It meesses it up. Then when you uninstall you have to set up modes again. Just FYI, not sure if you use the modes or not.
Thanks for all of the info. I don't use modes, but I do like the widgets, particularly calendar and weather. Being able to see what I have to do every day right on the home screen(s) is very helpful!
http://androinica.com/2009/09/24/dont-like-the-android-calendar-widget-get-a-pure-one/
And for the weather/clock I am using beautiful widgets. There are options out there
Just flashed SC 2.4 voodoo rom and have some questions about it.
1. how do you delete the home screen? (I have 7 home screens now.. which is too many for me)
2. When I turn on Camera, it says update firmware. do I have to update firmware?
3. how can you customize shortcut on the bottom (a grey box that have call, app list, browser icon)? sry its kinda similar question as #1.
4. What kind of launcher does Superclean rom use? when i see task manager, icon looks like Touchwiz.. but overall interface and app list look like ADW.. but doesnt have ADW options though.. I'm confused.
I thought I had more questions but I forgot
I will edit this post if I think of more.
triple486 said:
Just flashed SC 2.4 voodoo rom and have some questions about it.
1. how do you delete the home screen? (I have 7 home screens now.. which is too many for me)
2. When I turn on Camera, it says update firmware. do I have to update firmware?
3. how can you customize shortcut on the bottom (a grey box that have call, app list, browser icon)? sry its kinda similar question as #1.
4. What kind of launcher does Superclean rom use? when i see task manager, icon looks like Touchwiz.. but overall interface and app list look like ADW.. but doesnt have ADW options though.. I'm confused.
I thought I had more questions but I forgot
I will edit this post if I think of more.
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Click to collapse
1,3, 4: its pretty much the stock aosp launcher, so any kind of home screen customization is out of the question unless you get something else like launcher pro/adw. Its called launcher2, I believe, taken straight from aosp source. So, if you want to change stuff, you're going to have to look at other launchers.
2. Yes.
And if you're looking for alot of customiziation options along with neat transitions built in...try launcher pro. I've been using it for years on different androids and love it.
mrodsunshine said:
1,3, 4: its pretty much the stock aosp launcher, so any kind of home screen customization is out of the question unless you get something else like launcher pro/adw. Its called launcher2, I believe, taken straight from aosp source. So, if you want to change stuff, you're going to have to look at other launchers.
2. Yes.
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Click to collapse
you mean I can't even set numbers of home screen with 'launcher2'?? thats not good..
what does aosp stand for?
If I use launcher pro or adw, stock launcher will be running in background? running 2 launchers will consume more battery and RAM?
2 launchers won't affect you that much. I used to run LPro and Twiz back on DI01 and could get 24-48 hours of bat life.
From what I have read on other posts just make sure that there are no widgets running on the unused launcher, as they might sitll be using the data connection to update.
AOSP is android open source project.
http://source.android.com/
Personally I recommend Lancher Pro over ADW, but I'm sure others will tell you differently. Free versions of both exists so just try em both out.
Full Battery Popup
I didn't know where to post this but I downloaded the new superclean 2.4, and despite it including a program that should have disabled it, I still got a pop-up notifying me of my full battery in the middle of the night. Does anyone know why I got this or does the full battery popup disable not work for all phones?
If you don't like having two launchers and want more customization options, install Launcher pro and uninstall Launcher ebproductions. I use nothing but LP, none of the other launchers can cut it for me.
eboersch said:
I didn't know where to post this but I downloaded the new superclean 2.4, and despite it including a program that should have disabled it, I still got a pop-up notifying me of my full battery in the middle of the night. Does anyone know why I got this or does the full battery popup disable not work for all phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you wipe prior flashing?
And launcher pro is imho the best hands down. Try the trial and if you like it pay for the full. The twitter and facebook widgets are the best of any out there...bar none.
go launcher
re jenisiz - I used rom manager and always back up previous rom and wipe data but i did not try to do it myself in cwm but now that you mention it I will give it a shot
re triple486 - Launchers make all the difference. I have tried just about everything I could find and I personally liked Go Launcher. Launcher Pro is cool but i would say it is 100 times better for the pay version. You can resize widgets to your liking and there is a lot of support for theming the Launcher Pro widgets. Overall, any launcher seems like it offers more flexibility and features than the stock or aosp launcher. Try the free versions and see what you like.
Battery pop up still there
I cleared all data and the cache twice but the full battery popup is still there.
I did not mention this but i installed the Revolution theme over superclean 2.4. Will that prevent the battery popup from being disabled?
triple486 said:
you mean I can't even set numbers of home screen with 'launcher2'?? thats not good..
what does aosp stand for?
If I use launcher pro or adw, stock launcher will be running in background? running 2 launchers will consume more battery and RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the only cool thing about the stock AOSP launcher is the 3D app drawer, LauncherPro does this as well but it's not quite as good.
Once LauncherPro/ADW is installed and running, you can use the task manager to kill the other launcher so it's not running in the background.
Press your home key and set the default to LauncherPro/ADW and it will use these by default from then on and the other launchers will not run.
I personally use Launcher Pro on all my android devices and I always recommend it over ADW but they're both good and its just a matter of personal preference, you can install both and try them - it wont hurt anything and they hardly take up any space.
If you set one as a default and want to change the default again go to settings > applications > manage applications - find the launcher you set as a default, and click "Clear Defaults".
I have tried home switcher and the likes to try to set go launcher, launcher pro and adw launcher. Tried to clear default manually. (Basically the same thing home switcher does).
But whenever i exit apps or even preferences. My phone prompts me to choose what launcher to use. I choose ex launcher pro. Tick of the default theme. And it still prompts me 2 minutes later.
I am not rooted. On froyo 2.2.1
Can anyone help choose and keep another launcher than htc sense?
Don't know, but for me after geting a new launcher(launcher pro), had hard time to move from sense, it's great.
But I just once selected the launcher pro as default, and phone has ever since asked to choose.
If i want to switch back to sense, how to do it? Only way i see is to instal another launcher to get the phone to ask what to use.
And haven't rooted my phone.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA App
Whippler said:
Don't know, but for me after geting a new launcher(launcher pro), had hard time to move from sense, it's great.
But I just once selected the launcher pro as default, and phone has ever since asked to choose.
If i want to switch back to sense, how to do it? Only way i see is to instal another launcher to get the phone to ask what to use.
And haven't rooted my phone.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Uninstall launcherpro. Then Sense will take over.
getting back to sense is easy..
install yet another launcher to get to choose default. thats the hard and stupid way.
else.. settings/programs/ go set sense as the default
homeswitcher. which is the same. just takes a few steps off the process..
but how do i set another launcher as default for good, without home button sending me to choose default launcher all the time?
is it possible that an app has changed some settings?
can i freeze out sense or any other workaround, without rooting ?
I had this problem when I had Launcher 7 and ADW installed. I chose L7 to be my default and couldn't get ADW back. Then found out by going to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Application -> All and then choose Launcher Pro. Scroll down and you should see a section call Launch Default and click Clear Default. That should fix it.
I'm on CM7 so how you get to Application list may vary. Hope this helps.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
I had the same problem, of the phone constantly asking what launcher to use when pressing the home button. I would pick my preferred launcher, check the box to use my selection as default. Then it would stay as default for a while, but "lose" the default fairly soon. This happened frequently, many times a day.
I tried clearing the default (both manually and using home switcher), uninstalling all but the stock Sense launcher (this was on Virtuous), and the problem just came back even after just installing one launcher (and it didn't matter which, I tried installing/uninstalling different ones). Something definitely "changed" to cause this problem (although I don't know what). It was fine for a while when I was on Virtuous, and then one day it wasn't. I was playing around with various launchers at the time. So I all can think is one of them somehow messed up the ability to keep the default.
The problem persisted until I flashed back to the stock ROM. Only other thing I can think of to try, is to clear dalvik and cache. Clearing those seems to fix some random problems, once in a while.
krankdroid said:
I have tried home switcher and the likes to try to set go launcher, launcher pro and adw launcher. Tried to clear default manually. (Basically the same thing home switcher does).
But whenever i exit apps or even preferences. My phone prompts me to choose what launcher to use. I choose ex launcher pro. Tick of the default theme. And it still prompts me 2 minutes later.
I am not rooted. On froyo 2.2.1
Can anyone help choose and keep another launcher than htc sense?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem, and after reading tons about it online, it seems the only explanation is that one of your apps is interfering with the choice, it can be any app you have, even if it has nothing to do with a Launcher function.
What I did was backup all my apps (130+) to Titanium (I am rooted), then uninstall them all. I then proceeded to reinstall them by batches of 3-5. Until I pinned down the problem to Photoid Pro. I dumped it and ever since my Z has been working flawlessly on Zeam launcher.
I have read that there are several other apps that interfere as well, so you might have to do as me, uninstall, and reinstall until you can spot the culprit.