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Sell me on a home replacement...

Do I have to Root my phone to use either of the replacement Homes? I think Messenger 13 has sold me on SweeterHome but I need to figure out how to use it. I have read where some download it to their computer and create it then upload to the phone. Others prefer to do it all in the phone. Any thoughts on either of these procedures... I have windows vista.
 
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OK, I tried these

dxtop
Home++
GDE
Launcher (2.1)
SweeterHome2
Panda

dxtop: Very stable, it has 5 screens, center, left, right, top, bottom. The cool thing about it, is that you can switch to any screen regardless of where you are. For example, if you are in the center screen, and swipe to the bottom, you can get to the right screen by sweeping to the right, and don't have to visit the center screen, all of the screens are always available regardless of the quadrant you are in.

GDE. Has the coolest transition with the cube effect, you can swipe left or right and go to all the screens pretty quickly. Has the most limited number of themes out there, but then again, I am not big on that

Home++. Again, a left to right navigation, but the bottom toolbar is very elegant, and the fact that the top status bar is hidden makes your screen look so much bigger, and it is one of my favorite looks.

Launcher: Left to right navigation, it has 5 screens, and the application launcher has a nice effect, but it made it FC way too often for me

SweeterHome2: If you have a few hours or maybe even days, to waste, and customize the heck out of it, this is the most customizable app out there. There is nothing stock, you can always get a theme online, but the customization level is incredible. It also makes it a pain in the a$$, but very challenging. It also has a center, right, left , bottom screens, but you can only get to those screens through the center screen, unlike dxtop.

Panda: My least favorite, gave me a headache. Looks like it was designed for teenage girls that like to put glitter on their phones

So, which one I am using now, of course, SweeterHome2, as I am determined to make the blasted thing work. I am almost done with my theme, just have to do a few adjustments, but I have everything where I like.
 
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