ADW.Launcher: The best launcher/home replacement around.

[titans]

ADW Launcher: 5/5 stars.

Looking for the best launcher/home replacement around, well look no further, ADW launcher is exactly that. Just two of the MANY great features of this app is the ability to have up to SEVEN home screens, and the ability to have it automatically rotate into landscape mode when you tilt your phone, even without sliding out your keyboard. If you are on stock Android, and are tired of three home screens, lag, and no customizations, you MUST try this. EXTREMELY customizable, fast, smooth, and aesthetically pleasing, ADW launcher rockets itself above all other launcher/home replacement apps. Not to mention, it's FREE!

The home screen:

(Clock not included, that would be Weather Toggle Widgets in the market)
This is the home screen of ADW launcher. As you can see, you have the dots on the left and right to easily bounce between home screens if you don't feel like swiping, and you also have two dedicated buttons next to the app drawer button which you can assign to any applications. Let's say that all you want is a Nexus One style home screen, with just the app drawer button and the dots on the left and right sides. No problem. By Disabling the left and right (LAB and RAB in UI Settings under ADW settings) buttons, you can have yourself a Nexus One style homescreen, with more customization options.

One thing about the home screen that sets ADW launcher apart from others is the hidden dock bar. Simply flick the app drawer button up, and a dock pops up, allowing you to put six additional applications shortcuts, as shown in this picture:

So total, you can have EIGHT application shortcuts docked, as where apps such as LauncherPro Beta and Helix Launcher only give you four. A cool thing that ADW Launcher also has is the Sense-like screen previews. You press the home button, and a preview of your screens pop up onto your screen, which allow you to easily navigate through your home screens.

Another thing unique to ADW launcher is the choice to have a horizontal scrolling app drawer

The dots on the top indicate what page you are on, the bolded one is the page that you are currently on. You scroll through your apps in a horizontal left and right motion. However, if this is not your thing, you can always change it back to a normal vertical scrolling app drawer. As you may notice the app drawer background is slightly tinted red. Now this leads me onto the customization abilities of ADW launcher

ADW launcher has TONS of customizable settings. You can change the amount of screens and the default screen, the color of the highlight when you touch an app, you can change the color and transparency of the app drawer background, the number of columns and rows in the app drawer, hiding the notification bar, hiding the names of the apps, and more. When changing the colors off the app selection highlights and app drawer, you have the option to choose the color by dragging your finger around a color wheel.

If you are having trouble finding the shade of the color that you want, navigate to this website http://www.december.com/html/spec/colorhex.html and find the code of the color that you want, and simply type it into the text box.
These screenshots below show you all of the features that ADW lets you change:

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I hope that this review convinced you to give ADW Launcher a try, ESPECIALLY if you are on stock Android. This is a great launcher that is fast, very customizable, and great looking.

FIVE STARS.

 

[benzmar]

Hi,

This is a beautiful app to customize the home screen and many more. There are two ADW versions, (Donut & normal). Xperia X10 supports only Donut. Not supporting the newer version The newer version has more customizable.

Anyways xperia x10 can have the new version of ADW Launcher?

Regards,

 

[benzmar]

And how to customize the dockbar apps. I have the deafult dialer and browser in the left and right. I wanna change it to something else. How?

 

[benzmar]

In the screen preference, I do not see "Wallpaper Hack" and "Screen Orientation". I am having Xperia X10.

 

[flick159]

Great launcher, just installed on my Ally. Really helped the overall speed and feeling of the phone. Love the customization.

Only thing I'm missing now is the stock android power/gps/bluetooth/wifi/screen brightness widget. Anyone know where or how I can get that back?

And how to customize the dockbar apps. I have the deafult dialer and browser in the left and right. I wanna change it to something else. How?

Unsure if it's the same on your x10, however I simply dragged and dropped whatever app I wanted into those spaces.

EDIT: Scratch that, got the widget figured out. Silly just a long press on the home screen. Duh.

 

[Gurba]

I can't change the apps on the drawer. I've got gmail to the right and I don't use that. How can i change it?

 

[cornbreadfarts]

Number 1 launcher. Great app. This guy deserves some donations.

 

[EinZtein]

And how to customize the dockbar apps. I have the deafult dialer and browser in the left and right. I wanna change it to something else. How?

Yes, this needs to be customizable immediately, I'm looking at some other home apps that do this...

 

[EinZtein]

...been using it and digging it, but this is basic limitation I want and need.

 

[benzmar]

simply drag and drop does not work in Xperia X10i. I think you are using ADW Launcher. Xperia is presently supporting ADW Launcher (Donut) version. Hence it is not working in donut version

Anyone knows how to customize the dockbar in donut version?

 

[markj]

Is there any way to use ADW with HTC Sense widgets? This is a major letdown for me trying ADW, because coming from Sense, there are a lot of widgets I'd like.

 

[kmoon89]

I'm using this along with LauncherPro on my Evo, and I, too, love it, but does anyone know how to change the dock's background? Honestly, the only reason why I'm using LP more is because of the customizable dock background. Otherwise, I like ADW much more.

 

[EinZtein]

Latest version working perfectly on my touch.

 

[WUESTSIDER]

I have both, but I use LauncherPro the most. I perfer the dock bar on LauncherPro over ADW.Launcher. Additionally, LauncherPro has now added a "People/Calling" widget that is better then the stock HTC People Widget.

So in my opinion, I perfer LauncherPro over ADW.Launcher. I'm not saying ADW is bad, its just LauncherPro fits my needs.

 

[Brumbjorn]

simply drag and drop does not work in Xperia X10i. I think you are using ADW Launcher. Xperia is presently supporting ADW Launcher (Donut) version. Hence it is not working in donut version

Anyone knows how to customize the dockbar in donut version?

DRag and drop to replace dock icons works for me on X10. (i or a irrelevant)

 

[EinZtein]

Works on Mytouch as well.

 

[asp2010]

so i've been using ADW.Launcher for a week now and it's really awesome. the only thing i'd like to have is a widget like the HTC Sense Mobile Network setting, the one that allows you to turn on/off your mobile data connection with one click. i'm using mySettings, which only has an option to switch between 2G and 3G, and also the widgets i've found on the market do the same thing. does anyone know something that would help me?

also, would it be possible to change the status bar on my Desire to look like the stock android one (not the black Sense bar) without rooting? thanks!

 

[jedge]

Any updates coming out soon?
would esp. like to see a customizable dock bar background and customizable center apps button icon. thanks.

 

[Cjohnson420]

I installed adw.launcher on my EVO and it messed it up. Now am I no longer able to use a static/ non-scrolling background on the HTC Sense launcher, even after uninstalling adw.launcher. I think what happens it what when you install adw it changes the standard launcher and there is no way to modify it. Not sure why it did this, but im really bummed about it!