Root Goodbye TouchWiz

[saps]

So we have long wondered if we can get rid of TouchWiz altogether. Maybe you already knew this but I didnt. So despite the fact that this linked thread below is like 6 weeks old apparently I missed it the whole time till today.
Replacing stock launcher - xda-developers
Bottom Line: Copy LP or ADW .apk file [com.fede.launcher.apk for LP] in data/app and paste in system/app. Then in system/app rename the TouchWiz30Launcher.apk to TouchWiz30Launcher.old. Reboot. Its literally a 35 second process in RE. Took longer to reboot and than to copy and paste this.
The most notable change to getting rid of TW is when you go to put a new shortcut in your LP dock, it usuallly take what 10-15 seconds for the app list to come up if you pick Apps right? Now its instant. Everything else seems as fast or faster than before. I for one am glad I made this move. I do recommend this to all using LP or ADW. If anyone still does not have RE [Root Explorer] its well worth $4 or whatever it costs thesedays, you cannot do this with Astro.

**Please note if you have the FaceBook Widget set to autosnyc you may encounter problems like Force Closing Issues**

Also on a semi-related note I have uninstalled AutoKiller as well and am seeing how I do without it. But thats another matter.

 

[NOsquid]

I uninstalled AK yesterday after adrenalyne mentioned it on XDA. So far, it could be in my head, but I notice a little more lag in my web browser when scrolling. Same stuff that FC on me before still does (ive had one random FC of beautiful widgets and one in xscope while I had a bunch of tabs open). No true freezes of apps so far.

 

[GoBruins]

Cool just removed TW! Thanks Saps!

This is what I specifically did:

-Copied com.fede.launcher.apk from data/app => system/app
-Moved TouchWiz30Launcher.apk from system/app to my SDcard
-FC Close loop happened, held power button, shut down
-Reboot
-Widgets were messed up, remade them and rebooted
-Reboot and done!

Edit and question:

Can you remove the other touchwiz stuff in /system/app? O_O
-TW calculator, calendar, calendar provider?

 

[NOsquid]

Do you actually have LP.apk? I have com.fede.launcher.apk

Don't wanna mess this up

 

[GoBruins]

com.fede.launcher.apk, didn't want to type the whole thing, haha

 

[saps]

Cool just removed TW! Thanks Saps!

This is what I specifically did:

-Copied LP.apk from data/app => system/app
-Moved TouchwizLauncher apk and odex from system/app to my SDcard
-FC Close loop happened, held power button, shut down
-Reboot
-Widgets were messed up, remade them and rebooted
-Reboot and done!

Edit and question:

Can you remove the other touchwiz stuff in /system/app? O_O
-TW calculator, calendar, calendar provider?

I renamed the TW.apk to .old but moving to SDCard is just as good. I also had to restart my BW. I think its faster and I rebooted a second time for a different reason and it seemed to boot faster the second time.
I dont know about the other stuff. I thought I was done with bloatware so Ive been out of that mode for a month. However, just this week I finally got rid of TW and 3GMobile HotSpot or whatever its called. Im still not sure I can get rid of Nuance VoiceCommands and something else I cant remember now.
But yeah good riddens to TW, even though I actually have nothing against it. Funny thing is since I removed AutoKiller I actually have even more ram free than when I had it on

 

[zero_one]

I renamed the TW.apk to .old but moving to SDCard is just as good. I also had to restart my BW. I think its faster and I rebooted a second time for a different reason and it seemed to boot faster the second time.
I dont know about the other stuff. I thought I was done with bloatware so Ive been out of that mode for a month. However, just this week I finally got rid of TW and 3GMobile HotSpot or whatever its called. Im still not sure I can get rid of Nuance VoiceCommands and something else I cant remember now.
But yeah good riddens to TW, even though I actually have nothing against it. Funny thing is since I removed AutoKiller I actually have even more ram free than when I had it on

If you're interested in speed and overall performance, try installing one of the ROMS (I took the plunge and installed jt's Super Clean). The phone is definitely snappier and you no longer have to deal with those odex files. (In this case, I just had to rename TWlauncher30.apk to .old and thats it). I just installed the ROM straight with Voodoo enabled and didn't even clear data or cache. The phone runs smoother than ever.

 

[buur]

Do you actually have LP.apk? I have com.fede.launcher.apk

Don't wanna mess this up

Yeah I am wondering the same thing. I can't seem to find LP.apk on mine.

Ok, com.fede.launcher.apk is the same as lp.apk. All working.

 

[MutantCheese]

sweet move OP. I may give it a try.

 

[dopepope]

Do you actually have LP.apk? I have com.fede.launcher.apk

Don't wanna mess this up

yes that is the correct apk, also tw is touchwizlauncher30.apk

worked great for me, just renamed touchwizlauncher30.apk to touchwizlauncher30.apk.old then reboot (did have to reload widgets).

-after having this applied for 10 minutes, I am getting an FC from process.acore regularly.

 

[saps]

Yeah I am wondering the same thing. I can't seem to find LP.apk on mine.

Ok, com.fede.launcher.apk is the same as lp.apk. All working.

Yeah sorry I suppose I should have been more detailed and precise in my wording in the OP.
One day in this is definitely a smoother operation. Im not kidding the quickness of replacing the dock apps from app list is worth it alone. Before it would take like 15 seconds for that list to pop up and now its automatic.

**Please note** even though I/we copy and paste from data/app once pasted in system/app it no longer resides in data/app. Why is that significant? When updates to LP come out you cannot update since the file/folder is not in data/app so you will have to manually DL a new apk and then re-paste in system/app. Its a bit of extra work but worth it from my standpoint

 

[zero_one]

Saps, I think in your clarification of the instructions you messed up a bit? You left out TWlauncher.. and you rename com.fede.launcher.apk to .old? Why? I did no such thing.

 

[hindustani8]

How do you remove 3GMobile Hotspot? What file do I need to rename?

 

[GoBruins]

Saps, I think in your clarification of the instructions you messed up a bit? You left out TWlauncher.. and you rename com.fede.launcher.apk to .old? Why? I did no such thing.

Hmm his directions were fine last time. Anyhow, you're supposed to rename the TW launcher to .old or move it somewhere else all together.

 

[MutantCheese]

I tried this, but didn't see any noticeable speed increase or lag decrease. Undone.

 

[GoBruins]

How do you remove 3GMobile Hotspot? What file do I need to rename?

Apps that are safe to remove once rooted - Page 6 - Android Forums

its mobileAP.apk

 

[Mazeraski]

Nice find saps, I may have to do this. I do despise the lag you describe when accessing apps for making shortcuts although mine improved a bit when I applied Dirrk's kernel.

 

[NOsquid]

I tried this, but didn't see any noticeable speed increase or lag decrease. Undone.

What did you do and how did you undo it? Step-by-step please?

I'm mostly curious if this is easy to undo without making the phone angry.

 

[GoBruins]

If you want to undo it, just do the reverse directions.
Move/Rename back the TWLauncher files, delete the com.fede.launcher.apk in system/app => reboot and you'e done.

 

[saps]

Saps, I think in your clarification of the instructions you messed up a bit? You left out TWlauncher.. and you rename com.fede.launcher.apk to .old? Why? I did no such thing.

Wow yeah I sure did changed it to the right ones. Thanks buddy I hope I didnt screw anyone up

 

[saps]

How do you remove 3GMobile Hotspot? What file do I need to rename?

Hmm his directions were fine last time. Anyhow, you're supposed to rename the TW launcher to .old or move it somewhere else all together.

Apps that are safe to remove once rooted - Page 6 - Android Forums

its mobileAP.apk

Yeah I kissed good riddens to mobile hotspot. So yeah either rename in RE or Freeze in TBPro, there's a few ways to tackle it. Some remove and store in sdcard as well.
Just so we're clear in the link above they list Nuance Voice Commands as well as one you can get rid of. However, further down the page I think the poster retracts that comment. Worst case, rename it in RE if you get problems revert back to proper name. I might try this one myself as Nuance uses 11mb for no good reason

 

[GoBruins]

Yeah I kissed good riddens to mobile hotspot. So yeah either rename in RE or Freeze in TBPro, there's a few ways to tackle it. Some remove and store in sdcard as well.
Just so we're clear in the link above they list Nuance Voice Commands as well as one you can get rid of. However, further down the page I think the poster retracts that comment. Worst case, rename it in RE if you get problems revert back to proper name. I might try this one myself as Nuance uses 11mb for no good reason

Are you referring to VsuiteApp.apk? I remember moving this one and it caused FC. But after a fast reboot, my phone was running fine. If you're not referring to Vsuiteapp, then forget this

 

[bezerk19]

So we have long wondered if we can get rid of TouchWiz altogether. Maybe you already knew this but I didnt. So despite the fact that this linked thread below is like 6 weeks old apparently I missed it the whole time till today.
Replacing stock launcher - xda-developers
Bottom Line: Copy LP or ADW .apk file [com.fede.launcher.apk for LP] in data/app and paste in system/app. Then in system/app rename the TouchWiz30Launcher.apk to TouchWiz30Launcher.old. Reboot. Its literally a 35 second process in RE. Took longer to reboot and than to copy and paste this.
The most notable change to getting rid of TW is when you go to put a new shortcut in your LP dock, it usuallly take what 10-15 seconds for the app list to come up if you pick Apps right? Now its instant. Everything else seems as fast or faster than before. I for one am glad I made this move. I do recommend this to all using LP or ADW. If anyone still does not have RE [Root Explorer] its well worth $4 or whatever it costs thesedays, you cannot do this with Astro.

Also on a semi-related note I have uninstalled AutoKiller as well and am seeing how I do without it. But thats another matter.

For what its worth, Touchwiz isn't too bad, but i just never liked the fact that you can't put the Google Search widget while using Touchwiz (you have to use Launcher Pro for that), but I found a post can't seem to find it, but it mentioned the installer for Touchwiz from the Vibrant, which had google search. I used root explorer (great program by the way) and replaced touchwiz with that of the Vibrant, and it works great, plus you can have the Google Search widget on one of your screens, its way better now!

 

[nitsuj17]

For what its worth, Touchwiz isn't too bad, but i just never liked the fact that you can't put the Google Search widget while using Touchwiz (you have to use Launcher Pro for that), but I found a post can't seem to find it, but it mentioned the installer for Touchwiz from the Vibrant, which had google search. I used root explorer (great program by the way) and replaced touchwiz with that of the Vibrant, and it works great, plus you can have the Google Search widget on one of your screens, its way better now!

yeah touchwiz isnt THAT awful really, but when you use a 3rd party launcher thats so much quicker and more feature-filled than you learn to resent it. IMO sense is the only "good" oem skin and even then the lack of resizable widgets irks me.

i await the day (and i may be waiting forever ) when samsung/htc releases a vanilla android phone that doesnt have a major internal error passed off as a failsafe (g2) or a screwy file system (samsung).

 

[MJMcMahon]

Great stuff Saps! I and my phone thank you!