Home Replacement Apps (the good, the bad & the ugly)

[FastKatt]

I thought it would be a good idea for all of us to post some tips & tricks as well as any issues we've found with the home replacements on the market.

What home replacement are you using?
What have you found to be wrong with it?
Have you found a way to make it work better or fixed a problem with it?
Is there just something that is flat out incredible or really crappy about one of them, in your opinion?

Lets have it!
Thanks guys & gals!

 

[FastKatt]

I seem to be having a problem with my phone wanting to take as much as 20 seconds to "redraw" my home screen.
If I don't "wait it out" it will Force Close on me if I try and swipe it to the side or click a widget before it's ready...

I'm using ADW.Launcher with SS4.7 (because the dev said he likes it & installing the ROM removed LauncherPro from my phone) My Default Home is set to WidgetLocker, so that might be the issue.
Anyone have any hints to help me out?

As for Widget Locker, I love it!
It's great to have all the extra sliders on my screen to jump right into an app while I'm on the go! Plus, the Beautiful Widgets Clock & Weather is much nicer than the stock clock on the lock screen.
I think it's a tad over priced, 0.99 seams fair for what you get. Yet, I have no regrets...

Launcher Pro seemed to be a very nice home replacement. I really liked the extra icons when you swiped the bar to the side. I hope to be able to reinstall it after a factory reset & use it with the SS4.7 or SS4.8 ROM

Sweeter Home Beta is a kickass home replacement! Very versatile! It did tend to get a bit laggy, but I will give it an other go. (Any hints for this one would be appreciated!)

 

[Mamaperk]

I love launcherpro plus but it hasn't been playing nice with my dx. When I was using it, the screens started moving, a if I was scrolling and clicking widgets, apps, etc ... Lots of lag and redraws.

When I hit my home key I get the choices of using launcher pro, widget locker and sweeter home but not stock. What's up with that?

Im getting frustrated with the whole home/launcher issue lately.

I'm on DroidX, not rooted ( yet ) ...

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[flyboyzz1]

I love launcherpro plus but it hasn't been playing nice with my dx. When I was using it, the screens started moving, a if I was scrolling and clicking widgets, apps, etc ... Lots of lag and redraws.

When I hit my home key I get the choices of using launcher pro, widget locker and sweeter home but not stock. What's up with that?

Im getting frustrated with the whole home/launcher issue lately.

I'm on DroidX, not rooted ( yet ) ...

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Try the app home switcher to set launcherpro as default.

 

[DroidMomof9]

I just added launcher pro and it put it on and now everything is gone - any good tutorials on how to set it up.... I am overwhelmed.... help

 

[flyboyzz1]

this program puts a new homepage on top of your phones real home page. You need to add apps and shortcuts to the new homescreen. If you click menu and then preferences you can edit all the options of launcher pro.

 

[DroidMomof9]

I ended up uninstalling it for now.... I just need an easy set-up for my phone right now. Then as I use it more (only had it about 10 days), I will tweak it to suit my needs.

 

[Phreaker47]

I seem to be having a problem with my phone wanting to take as much as 20 seconds to "redraw" my home screen.
If I don't "wait it out" it will Force Close on me if I try and swipe it to the side or click a widget before it's ready...

I'm using ADW.Launcher with SS4.7 (because the dev said he likes it & installing the ROM removed LauncherPro from my phone) My Default Home is set to WidgetLocker, so that might be the issue.
Anyone have any hints to help me out?

As for Widget Locker, I love it!
It's great to have all the extra sliders on my screen to jump right into an app while I'm on the go! Plus, the Beautiful Widgets Clock & Weather is much nicer than the stock clock on the lock screen.
I think it's a tad over priced, 0.99 seams fair for what you get. Yet, I have no regrets...

Launcher Pro seemed to be a very nice home replacement. I really liked the extra icons when you swiped the bar to the side. I hope to be able to reinstall it after a factory reset & use it with the SS4.7 or SS4.8 ROM

Sweeter Home Beta is a kickass home replacement! Very versatile! It did tend to get a bit laggy, but I will give it an other go. (Any hints for this one would be appreciated!)

This should get rid of redraws for good:

- In ADW launcher (use the latest from the market), under system preferences, enable "System persistent". The homescreen will no longer auto-rotate to landscape mode, but this helps immensely by reducing the memory footprint to reduce redraws. (apps will still auto-rotate, of course, according to preferences set in the ChevyNo1 options. Just not the home screen.)

- Make sure you have the latest version of Widgetlocker. Disable "home helper", and make ADW your "true" home app once again. Enable the new "5 second rule bypass for root users" option in WL instead, and allow it superuser permissions.

- DELETE launcher2 with Chevy's scripts then reboot.

I have zero redraws now. Zero... and I struggled with this FOREVER.

If you somehow still have issues, take a look at other apps you have installed... specifically, if you have too many memory-resident apps such as tons of widgets, services, etc. You might need to trim that down if you somehow still have redraws after doing the above.

 

[guidot]

Recently came across Zeam.

Nice, simple, does the job.

-Droid Does

 

[Nibbz]

im using ADW, i used to use Launcher Pro and LOVED it but it started running very poorly on my Droid, i at first thought it was just my droid but when I installed ADW it started running loads better.

 

[johnnycool001]

I have a few questions. I am stock running 2.2d, I have the redraw issue as well. I seamed to get better for a while but now its back again. So now I am thinking or trying launcher pro. My Question do I have to clear my stock screens to install it? and not if I switch back will it still be as I left it. Will I have a choice to switch between stock and the third party launcher? Does all the current widgets, wallpapers and such work with the other lanuchers just like stock?

 

[guidot]

You can leave everything on your home screen. Download home switcher from the market. That will allow you to switch between stock and launcher pro. (It doesn't quite work as it used to in 2.1) all Widgets will work the same. You have options to have more launcher icons and things. Makes it easy to launch programs.

-Droid Does

 

[thistle]

Recently came across Zeam.

Nice, simple, does the job.

-Droid Does

I've been using dxtop pretty much since the Droid came out but could not for life of me get it to stop redrawing on cyanogenmod. I switched to Zeam about two weeks ago and it seems like a new phone. Incredibly fast navigation and zero redraws. This home has just the right amount of tweakability for my tastes.

 

[dorlisa]

I have Launcherpro Plus and loved it.. but two days ago, I started getting force closes and could not do anything.. I tried to reboot my phone and it locked up... ended up losing everything on my phone... got it back to the way I wanted it, LPP started acting up again today and I couldnt even use phone so now.. I unistalled it. I am very upset cause I loved it but.. what is point having it if you cant even use phone?

Please fix LPP!!!

 

[techgov8]

I used to use launcherpro plus but after a while went by and the dev deserted it I switched to go launcher and its awesome. The only problem Ive ever had was it using up to 38mbs of my cpu but all I did was restart it and it was fine. But that's rare.