Replacing stock launcher

[Daswolven]

I was thinking back to before froyo, when it was good practice in Nexus tweaking to replace the stock launcher.apk in system/app with a modded or third party launcher. I'm not sure if this would be a good bet or not with all the touch wiz integration on my fascinate. Can anyone clue me in on whether this would be worth a shot?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

 

[Daswolven]

Ha. Answered my own question. Moved the adw launcher file from data/app to system/app, then removed the two TouchWiz30Launcher files from system/app. Phone went bonkers with both launchers force closing continuously. Did a hard shut down, and on start up, everything is great.
ADW is the default launcher, touchwiz is gone, and no evident problems at all so far. Will do more testing and post if anything borks.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

 

[ivorycruncher]

What do you gain by doing that? I don't seem to be suffering any ill effects by having LauncherPro as default, and leaving TouchWiz alone. I'm assuming it's running somewhere in the background, but isn't hurting anything. In fact, I'm wondering if some of the TouchWiz apps like the dialer and such require it to be running. If I'm wrong, and removing TouchWiz not only can be done safely, but also produces some benefit, please let us know.

 

[Daswolven]

What do you gain by doing that? I don't seem to be suffering any ill effects by having LauncherPro as default, and leaving TouchWiz alone. I'm assuming it's running somewhere in the background, but isn't hurting anything. In fact, I'm wondering if some of the TouchWiz apps like the dialer and such require it to be running. If I'm wrong, and removing TouchWiz not only can be done safely, but also produces some benefit, please let us know.

Doesn't affect anything else system wise that I've found, and I've been looking. The main benefit is speed. The stock launcher runs regardless if in system/app, I just don't see it. I suspect battery use as well, but surely negligible. You don't have access to the samsung widgets, but I dislike them anyway, and ported them out. The net responsiveness of my phone is pretty impressive. For the first time I'm not missing my Nexus. Missing froyo though.
I did also disable all the other integrated social networking syncing, mostly for battery life reasons. I can't stand unnecessary crap running in the background.
End of it is that from what I have seen so far, ADW is a lot faster, more functional, and has less battery usage than stock.



Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

 

[Daswolven]

I also made the same modifications to my fiancee's phone, with the same results and no ill effects so far. She loves the performance differences so far.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

 

[ivorycruncher]

Hmm, well I've of the opinion that if it ain't broke, you don't fix it, so I think I'll leave LauncherPro in the /data/app folder. It's so fast already, I probably wouldn't even notice whatever speed boost it may get by moving it. Thanks for testing though!

 

[Daswolven]

Hmm, well I've of the opinion that if it ain't broke, you don't fix it, so I think I'll leave LauncherPro in the /data/app folder. It's so fast already, I probably wouldn't even notice whatever speed boost it may get by moving it. Thanks for testing though!

No problem. I'm sure I'll fu this phone up 10x before we see good development on it.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

 

[theicemonkey]

I'm intrigued by your progress and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

You wouldn't happen to have a list of the items you've removed, would you? Do you think Angel's Odin /system restore would fix your phone should you accidentally wreck it (because I would like to do this too)?

 

[Zennmaster]

Just tried this with Launcher Pro, and can confirm the results. I have to re-install my non-LP widgets, but that's expected.

To allow for any future backtracking, I simply renamed the TouchWiz30Launcher files with a ".bak" extension, so if things go south, I can just adb in and rename them back.

Nice find!

 

[bikeandestroyx]

Out of curiosity, the samsung lockscreen is still there correct?

 

[martyotaku]

Guys sorry but im a bit lost when u replaced the stock launcher csn u use touchwiz widgets with the new launcher or not?

 

[Zennmaster]

Out of curiosity, the samsung lockscreen is still there correct?

Yup. Although I've been using Widget Locker, which gives a similar experience to stock Android, but with widgets and custom sliders.

 

[Daswolven]

I'm intrigued by your progress and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

You wouldn't happen to have a list of the items you've removed, would you? Do you think Angel's Odin /system restore would fix your phone should you accidentally wreck it (because I would like to do this too)?

I hail from the world of Nexus and ClockworkMod with Nandroid. Odin is alien to me. I get the idea though, and I'm sure I'll be playing with it soon enough.
I will post a list of the stuff I've pulled after I get to my office. Unbeknownst to them, recently they have been paying me good money to play with my phone all day.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

 

[Daswolven]

No. you should have a healthy dislike of the Samsung widgets before replacing the stock launcher.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

 

[calhounhusker]

No. you should have a healthy dislike of the Samsung widgets before replacing the stock launcher.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App

Just got this phone last night. Rooted, lag fix and am running LauncherPro Plus. I kinda actually like some of the Samsung widgets but not enough for me to keep that launcher. They did some good things with it but it does slow the phone down.

 

[astraelraen]

If you replace/remove the Touchwiz launcher do you lose the pulldown notification bar at the top with the WIFI/etc toggles?

I use launcherpro now and would remove Touchwiz just for the sake of removing it, but I don't want to lose the pulldown notification bar with toggle icons included in it.

 

[martyotaku]

Oh if i lose my touchwiz widgets there is no point. I love the daily breifing widget and the scrolling twitter widget. Ill pass!

 

[Daswolven]

If you replace/remove the Touchwiz launcher do you lose the pulldown notification bar at the top with the WIFI/etc toggles?

I use launcherpro now and would remove Touchwiz just for the sake of removing it, but I don't want to lose the pulldown notification bar with toggle icons included in it.

Nope. The notification bar is not part of the launcher. Only the home screens and app drawers are launcher based.

 

[Daswolven]

I'm intrigued by your progress and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

You wouldn't happen to have a list of the items you've removed, would you? Do you think Angel's Odin /system restore would fix your phone should you accidentally wreck it (because I would like to do this too)?

Crapware I pulled without ill effect so far:

 

[DigitalDementia]

Crapware I pulled without ill effect so far:

This post seems to have fudged up? I can't see the list of removed bloat with nill for side affects. I'm looking to root and do the lagfix tonight but would also like to know what I can get rid of with no harm to my device. I'm comfortable with adb and what not but I still panic when my phone is acting improperly I'm far from an expert I'm more of a cut and paste kind of guy if you catch my drift