How to remove the stock browser?

[papy72]

I'm running a rooted stock 2.1 droid and am wondering how I go about removing the stock browser.

I use xscope and am tired of getting the 'choose a browser' box everytime it updates. I figured if there was only one browser on the phone it would open it by default (and plz correct me if I am wrong on that).

[Tanknspank]

You can use root exlporer from the market, go into /system/apps, mount r/w and then delete it. It should open xscope by default after that.

Can't remember the term code, but root explorer is a great app worth paying for. You will use it a lot.

[papy72]

Well I have AndExplorer and can find the browser.apk (and something called browser.odex - no clue what that is) in the \system\app directory.

One other question: if I want to keep it around "just in case" can I just slap a .bak on the end of the name to make the apk unrecognizable? Would i have to rename the odex file too?

[icculusX]

I think that should work just fine. I dono what the ODEX file is myself? You can always use ADB to pull the browser.apk file to keep a backup too... if you use ADB.

[Dustinmj]

Well I have AndExplorer and can find the browser.apk (and something called browser.odex - no clue what that is) in the \system\app directory.

One other question: if I want to keep it around "just in case" can I just slap a .bak on the end of the name to make the apk unrecognizable? Would i have to rename the odex file too?

Yes, you can (and should) just slap .bak onto the end of the filename so you can retrieve it quicker.

As for the .odex, that's also a part of the browser... you should technically rename them both. ODEX files are class files that are pre-optimized to save some overhead... the stock browser .apk requires the .odex in order to function, so if you ever want the browser back, remember to rename the .odex file back to.

There is a completely de-odexed file system floating around, but that's another story...

[papy72]

Thanks everyone!

[papy72]

ok, did the renames and Folder Organizer immediately crapped out. I suspect it has something to do with it's use of the global bookmarks.

So after renaming them back all is well (thankfully I didn't delete them). I guess I'm going to have to live with needing to choose xscope after every update.