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Best Launcher To Use

Hey...
I love Sense UI, but for the last 5 days I have been running froyo and wanted to find an alternate Home Launcher. After downloading several free ones I have come by 2 that i like..
The first one is Zeam--There are settings to allow you make the home screen go full screen which removes the status bar and you can have 9 screens.
The second one is Tag Home Launcher--It has a nice launcher and lets you set the transparency on certain things.
I also want to know what launcher you prefer and why. Please don't say Sense.

ADW launcher or try LauncherPro

Launcher Pro. 3-7 screens, scrollable dockbar, pretty smooth, nice app drawer. The only downside is Sense widgets don't work in it, if you use those a lot.

killerxx2 said:
ADW launcher or try LauncherPro
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Had ADW Launcher, but found the ones I mentioned before and liked it better. I am going to post some screen shots of them. They are nice. I'm running froyo which is an AOSP ROM. No Sense.

I've tried ADW and LP in the past, but for some reason I keep going back to Helix. It's pretty responsive and is nice and clean.

Home++ in the market seems to be pretty good. Seems to be faster than Zeam.. up to 7 screens and has a nice powerbar at the bottom.

IMO its between launcherpro and adw. Check any poll on this site and you'll see everyone else agrees. i personally use and lover launcherpro (3d gallery, fast, 3-7 screens, scrollable widgets, pinch to zoom home screens, 5 row home screens, dock shortcuts, and the list goes on and on lol even though this one is long enough)

Tried 'em all. LauncherPro wins for 1 reason only (for me, anyway) - 5 rows of icons on the home screens!

Just put launcher pro on. I like it. It might be the one to keep.

typeadam said:
Tried 'em all. LauncherPro wins for 1 reason only (for me, anyway) - 5 rows of icons on the home screens!
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ADW has this as well. I like LPb though the best. He keeps coming up with new sweet features. Love the scrolling dock bar. 3d app drawer could use some help. Just seemed clunky for me...but it was alright.

ADW FTW. The gestures alone make it better. Plus, its open source so you can do whatever you want to it.

daPorkchop said:
ADW has this as well. I like LPb though the best. He keeps coming up with new sweet features. Love the scrolling dock bar. 3d app drawer could use some help. Just seemed clunky for me...but it was alright.
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Same here I prefer launcherpro to ADW. I like how customizable the dock is in launcherpro, you can have the dots just like ADW or you can have all icons. I know you maybe able to do the same with ADW since its open source but customizing on launcherpro is so simple.

Try Launcher Pro. Trust me it is good!

UnknownDude said:
Try Launcher Pro. Trust me it is good!
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You fail for resurrecting a year old thread, and all you added was crap people said a year ago....

Zeam FTW or Launcher7 for something different

all of us have different needs,
why don't u install all the launchers you are considering and test all of them and finally choose your launcher.

i use adw launcher ex runs smooth with alot of eye candy and settings to play with just my 2 cents

Best or Most Favored Launcher?

Im noticing that theres alot of launchers like ADW, LaunchPro, Open Home, etc...I would like to get some input of people who has some experience with each one. Which one has the most options? im looking for more transparent kinda stuff...so maybe which one has the ability to make specific windows transparent. Also ease of use, which one has more themes/icons avialable?
Thanks

I think you will find most people use either launcher pro or adw launcher.
From my experience i had MAJOR force crash issues with OpenHome. I wasnt a fan of pandaHome it was sluggish for me.
Between ADW and Launcher Pro, I think they have very similar features if you arent paying for launcher pro plus for the sense like widgets.
ADW has more themes on the market however you can download any icon you find on the web (usually .png files) i believe for both so you can customize your "theme" and layout very easily to what ever you want.
I personally have the paid version of launcher pro (only available ont he website) because it gives you a sense like people and book mark widget and i wanted to support the developer.
I dont think you can go wrong with either one.

personally, I'm a big fan of adw launcher. I like that I can modify how many rows and columns the home screens have, and also I can set the size of widgets on the screen. I don't know if launcherpro will do that as well, but even besides that, ADW is hugely customizeable, and I swear by it.

I tried Launcher Pro, but it wasn't (imo) a very good Launcher replacement. ADW.Launcher is much better, and with the Paper theme it is my favorite out of all. PHome was very slow, and I didnt really like it in general.
Sent from my Droid using XDA App

I use ADW because of how its integrated into Cyanogen.
However Launcher Pro seems to move quite a bit faster in terms of scrolling and app drawer opening/scrolling.
Just my $.02
~Jasecloud4

I think the two top ones are ADW Launcher and LauncherPro.
I find myself switching between the two.
Personally find myself favoring ADW Launcher recently because it is open-source, and you know how Android fanboys loooove open source.

Thanks for all the great replies guys, im currently using the built in adw that comes with CM6 it is highly customizable...but i did find launcher pro to have a lot more options tho...anyways im going to stick with adw for now its working out pretty good so far.

omegasun18 said:
I think you will find most people use either launcher pro or adw launcher.
From my experience i had MAJOR force crash issues with OpenHome. I wasnt a fan of pandaHome it was sluggish for me.
Between ADW and Launcher Pro, I think they have very similar features if you arent paying for launcher pro plus for the sense like widgets.
ADW has more themes on the market however you can download any icon you find on the web (usually .png files) i believe for both so you can customize your "theme" and layout very easily to what ever you want.
I personally have the paid version of launcher pro (only available ont he website) because it gives you a sense like people and book mark widget and i wanted to support the developer.
I dont think you can go wrong with either one.
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How do I get the bookmark widget? I only see "people" in my launcher pro plus.
I had to update and they changed the process. Bookmark widget seems a little flakey with images.

If I could have the dockbar from adw put onto LauncherPro I'd have my dream launcher.

Yea seems most (like with roms) will swear by one launcher or another. IE the person saying launcher pro wasnt a good launcher replacement. I have use both and cant see how someone using ADW could say launcher pro wasnt a good launcher replacement since they are so similar in features and performance over all (in there current state, it is possible the person tested it a while back and maybe it had issues or something then).
I get slightly faster speeds on launcher pro as well. You can set the number of vertical icons on launcher pro same as you can on ADW for horizontal icons you can get more icons app to let you have 8 on any.
As for making the dock bar the same on ADW and launcher pro i may play with my launcher pro and see how similar i can get it. sice you can set each action and create different dock images/icons and can clear icons i can probably get it to be very similar at least in look i will let you know and if i can i will place a tut.
I use both since I play around with CM6 as my experimental rom. I just never worry about customizing deeply my non daily drivers.

LauncherPro Plus, for the win!
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Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.

Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.

Launcher pro for its sheer beauty and fluidity. ADW just seems to stutter around like the waterboy.

I gotta say Launcher Pro. especially now that it is coming out with some very nice looking widgets for people who liked the Sense UI stuff.
I do really like the customizations of ADW though. I wish Launcher Pro would incorporate the widget size customizations you can do. That would rock.
if ADW had the 3D drawer and was as smooth and pretty as LauncherPro I may switch.

takmsdsm said:
Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.
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And what makes Rosie so superior? Its complete lack of customization and features?

TheBiles said:
And what makes Rosie so superior? Its complete lack of customization and features?
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I wouldnt say that it cant be customized? There are a ton of themes out there for Rosie. What features are you exactly looking for?
Sorry, but a herky jerky "3D" app launcher isnt exactly mind blowing. Its a waste of screen real estate on the top and bottom. Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
Its little things like that that are more annoyances. Sense, no matter what rom, or kernel, I am using, has always been smoother and done everything I asked. Plus some of the HTC widgets are downright useful and better looking then their vanilla counterparts.
This is all my experiences of course, and YMMV, but so far I just havent been impressed by other launchers.

takmsdsm said:
Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
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I'm using LauncherPro Plus v0.7.1.0 and it does allow you to change the message button to handcent. It also allows me to change it on the people widget.

Am I the only one that just likes plain old Launcher 2? I mean Android is so customizable already, I don't see why you would want so many different options.
I tried Launcher Pro and ADW and of the two I liked Launcher Pro better but the plain Google-made Launcher 2 is still the smoothest in my opinion.

takmsdsm said:
I wouldnt say that it cant be customized? There are a ton of themes out there for Rosie. What features are you exactly looking for?
Sorry, but a herky jerky "3D" app launcher isnt exactly mind blowing. Its a waste of screen real estate on the top and bottom. Launcher Pro STILL (as of last week I believe when i tried it again) will not allow you to change the message button to handcent instead of the default messaging app.
Its little things like that that are more annoyances. Sense, no matter what rom, or kernel, I am using, has always been smoother and done everything I asked. Plus some of the HTC widgets are downright useful and better looking then their vanilla counterparts.
This is all my experiences of course, and YMMV, but so far I just havent been impressed by other launchers.
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Click to collapse
The "message button?" Do you mean the dock icon? If so, mine has been set as Handcent for quite some time.
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Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.

takmsdsm said:
Maybe I am the minority here, but i think Sense blows Launcher pro and ADW out of the water, both in smoothness and just plain usefulness. I have used both LP and ADW for extended amounts of time and have always returned to sense and was glad I did.
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Total agree, Sense is just so much smoother and doesn't crashes/freezes like adw and launcher pro. Plus I've use both for a while and got really frustrated with the constant freezing and force close and alway end up switching back to sense. Until stock froyo comes out on my phone I'm sticking with sense.

Which Launcher are you using?

I decided to give adw another try, if you do and change your setup to run 8 columns and 5 rows without icon text you can fit a ton of stuff on your home screens. Just make sure you resize your widgets accordingly.
Will post a couple screenshots soon.
-RB

Running eugenes Vibrant hybrid R3, best thing you can do with the phone if you want to remove most of touchwiz, not just hide it.

flashman2002 said:
Running eugenes Vibrant hybrid R3, best thing you can do with the phone if you want to remove most of touchwiz, not just hide it.
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I was running that for awhile, and it was super fast.
SRE1.2.3 w ext2 is working better for me as i need gps for the time being.

Anyone have any ideas for a good theme or two from this launcher?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I've gone between adw and launcher pro and I kinda like launcher pro better but adw has way better configurations. I'd say the speeds about the same.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897

Clienterror said:
I've gone between adw and launcher pro and I kinda like launcher pro better but adw has way better configurations. I'd say the speeds about the same.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897
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I tried ADW again because after my latest restore LP kept on FC on me.
I like LP's scrollable dock, but the ability to have 20 icons+ Fancy widget on the main screen is working well for me.

I use laucherpro because I can have 5 icons on the dock and have an additonal 5 applications off the dock via swipe.
it is super fast, works, and kinda digging the new facebook widget, works well.

Best launcher?

What is the best launcher? In terms of functionality, ease of use, features, design, speed?
Also is there anyway to customize the "Launcher2" on the Nexus S or is it just stuck that way?

- ADW Launcher
- ADW Launcher EX (If you like ADW Launcher, try this.. it's even better; paid app)
- LauncherPro
- Go Launcher EX(never used this but have heard good things about it)
.. this is going to stirr up a debate between ADW Launcher vs. LauncherPro.
My opinion? ADW Launcher, but try out both of them and see which one fits you.
And Launcher2 on NS stock.. nope.

Thanks, I think I'm going to use ADW EX, seems to have what I want and I've used ADW before so a better version of it should be better?

Yeah, EX was initially missing a few features from the free version, but I think those have all been added now, so it's pretty much a straight upgrade.
That said, a launcher is a UI element, so the best launcher is the one with the features you want and which you find most attractive and easiest to work with. There's a reason multiple launchers enjoy success in parallel; one size doesn't fit all.

Serious_Beans said:
Thanks, I think I'm going to use ADW EX, seems to have what I want and I've used ADW before so a better version of it should be better?
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Adw ex is way more fluid. Not sure what makes the difference, but it performs significantly better. Almost as buttery smooth as stock launcher.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I've used all of the popular ones; Zeam, GO, LauncherPro Plus, ADW, and ADW Ex and personally, the one that does everything I need it to without much fussing about is definitely LauncherPro. Zeam is nice but I couldn't figure out how to customize icons and for me that is a necessary function. GO is basically a freeware version of LPP but when I set custom icons they all came out slightly pixellated. Not very noticable but considering I've never had such an issue with LPP I saw no reason to switch to one that seems less functional. ADW just isn't customizable enough. Period. ADW Ex has a lot of functionality but when I tried to set my custom icons they came out as black squares, again why use a launcher replacement that I can't seem to get to match my theme?

kenvan19 said:
I've used all of the popular ones; Zeam, GO, LauncherPro Plus, ADW, and ADW Ex and personally, the one that does everything I need it to without much fussing about is definitely LauncherPro. Zeam is nice but I couldn't figure out how to customize icons and for me that is a necessary function. GO is basically a freeware version of LPP but when I set custom icons they all came out slightly pixellated. Not very noticable but considering I've never had such an issue with LPP I saw no reason to switch to one that seems less functional. ADW just isn't customizable enough. Period. ADW Ex has a lot of functionality but when I tried to set my custom icons they came out as black squares, again why use a launcher replacement that I can't seem to get to match my theme?
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for zeam, just use desktop visualizer and then drag it into the icon bar.

FaithCry said:
for zeam, just use desktop visualizer and then drag it into the icon bar.
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Click to collapse
Good to know but I'd rather not have to have another application installed just to change the icons in the already installed launcher.

there are more to Go Launcher EX, than Launcher Pro Plus + ADW EX combined
(IMO, i think that is actually why the DEV of GO launcher renamed it to GO launcher EX)
on top of all the LPP + ADW features, you can added any amount of screens, where most launcher usually maxes out at 7 screens,
re-size widgets,
add more columns & rows for the widget screens,
same can be done with the app drawer,
you can custom arrange the app drawer icons position, or default to some sorting of your choice,
you can change individual icons or you can change the entire skin,
very easy to apply any skin / theme with the skin chooser
you can make your own skin
it integrates itself with Go SMS, which also have matching skins, or you can customize your own
there is the build in Task Manager/Killer in Go Launcher EX
and so much more options under the hood.
it's build for customization, there are way too much options, so much that you don't know from where to start and all in a easy to use user interface
no need to edit anything manually on the file system, nor need to replace any files to change the theme/skin
just download the skin/theme that you like from the market and enable it.

Zeam all the way, baby!
Sent from my Nexus S

I prefer ADW as well.
Though I wish I could say stock. =T

Stock
Can I give ADW ex looks of stock launcher ?
Can I add more home screens to stock launcher ?

onthecouchagain said:
I prefer ADW as well.
Though I wish I could say stock. =T
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Why do you wish you could say stock? Don't get me wrong the stock launcher works great and I used it for months on my MT3G but it wasn't perfect. The only reason I prefer LauncherPro is that I absolutely can't stand it when icons don't match my theme so I use a custom launcher.

LP Plus just does what I want and its dead simple to set up too. ADW had few issues. Still, one mans Cameron Diaz is another mans Oprah Winfrey

Can LPP be configured to do swipe down on home screen to drop down the notification bar?

I´m using launcher pro and its more stable than the original launcher. But every time I have to reboot, the launcher pro come with black screen then force close and then restart normally... go figure.

alexcinci said:
I´m using launcher pro and its more stable than the original launcher. But every time I have to reboot, the launcher pro come with black screen then force close and then restart normally... go figure.
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that's a weird one, never seen that before, when i was using LPP

AllGamer said:
that's a weird one, never seen that before, when i was using LPP
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just adding: non rooted, stock kernell and rom
eventhough I´m having this issue, its way better than the original launcher

alexcinci said:
just adding: non rooted, stock kernell and rom
eventhough I´m having this issue, its way better than the original launcher
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Click to collapse
I have a similar issue. Doesn't happen every time but it does happen. Really isn't that much of a bother.

kenvan19 said:
I have a similar issue. Doesn't happen every time but it does happen. Really isn't that much of a bother.
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agree

A Launcher Comparison

Have tried a few launchers over the past few weeks, and made a comparison spreadsheet, take a look-
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc...4NmJ4X29sRk43dGc&authkey=CMfSjJgH&hl=en#gid=0
My thoughts
For a fast lightweight launcher, zeam (perfect apart from no notifications in the dock).EDIT - i have since found the appdrawer to be laggier in scrolling than go launcher / launcher pro, so cannot stand by my original near perfect opinion)
For a launcher with themes and lots of visual customisation - ADW EX
For an all round launcher - Go Launcher EX
For an all round launcher with its own widgets - Launcher Pro Plus

I use actualy crazy home pro and is very useful you have 3 desktop whit 5 pages each. Try and add to spreadsheet.
Sent from my X10minipro using XDA App

I use Arc Launcher. It isn't the most customised one but is indeed one of the most stable and refined. I just love the effects of one removing a widget on Arc Launcher!

thanks~~~~~~~~``

Nice, only thing I noticed was that ADW does have notifications with ADW Notifier, but very well done

You compltely missed on the most important thing, SPEED. For me launcher pro has absolutwly no lag at all on an htchero where as all other except zeam do. AdW has a clunky was to organize the homescreens in my opinion and although go launchwr was good, it was a bit laggy and the style didnt suit my taste
Sent from my EVO3D using XDA App

dre89 said:
Nice, only thing I noticed was that ADW does have notifications with ADW Notifier, but very well done
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spreadsheet amended. thanks for the update

fowenati said:
You compltely missed on the most important thing, SPEED. For me launcher pro has absolutwly no lag at all on an htchero where as all other except zeam do. AdW has a clunky was to organize the homescreens in my opinion and although go launchwr was good, it was a bit laggy and the style didnt suit my taste
Sent from my EVO3D using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, i have to agree with you that speed is important. i have only ever had lags with adw, but until i have the launchers set up with identical widgets i felt it was unfair to rank them on their perceived speed.

What you put in the "home screen notes" row is the reason I didn't use LP or Zeam.
I suggest you separate the "gestures" row into two, one for home screen, and one for dock bar.

Question for those with GO Launcher and Launcher Pro installed -
For the scrollable widgets, how do you find widget scrolling using Go Launcher compared to launcher pro? i find Go launcher very sensitive to left / right movement while trying to scroll the widget making it more difficult to vertically scroll the widgets than launcher pro. I tested this using pure messenger scroll with both.

fowenati said:
You compltely missed on the most important thing, SPEED. For me launcher pro has absolutwly no lag at all on an htchero where as all other except zeam do. AdW has a clunky was to organize the homescreens in my opinion and although go launchwr was good, it was a bit laggy and the style didnt suit my taste
Sent from my EVO3D using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, i have to agree with you that speed is important. i have only ever had lags with adw, but until i have the launchers set up with identical widgets i felt it was unfair to rank them on their perceived speed.
EDIT
Had lags on LPP this weekend...half second delays or so when swiping between screens...

nxdu said:
What you put in the "home screen notes" row is the reason I didn't use LP or Zeam.
I suggest you separate the "gestures" row into two, one for home screen, and one for dock bar.
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done!
cheers

nepentanova said:
done!
cheers
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GO has a up swipe for dock gesture.

tanjinjack said:
I use Arc Launcher. It isn't the most customised one but is indeed one of the most stable and refined. I just love the effects of one removing a widget on Arc Launcher!
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ARC Launcher added (though i don't share your love!!)

nxdu said:
GO has a up swipe for dock gesture.
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i thought there were only 2 gestures in GO Launcher, swipe up / down on home page (not just dock). perhaps we have our terminology mixed up..

Maybe you should add SPB Shell 3D as well - the launcher for users with too much money

nepentanova said:
ARC Launcher added (though i don't share your love!!)
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the addition of my favourite non-Sense launcher in it. Really like some of the effects that other launchers will probably never implement (like the effect of moving a widget, deleting a widget, going into app drawers etc.)
There are actually 7 screens version out there, and I got it here also from the link below. And there are some variants as well, including landscape mode (something I think is missing in other launchers.)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11856283&postcount=43
I manage to put apps into the dock as well (Miren browser and Dialer One).
Also about GO Launcher, I believe it does support swipe gestures on dock as well - it pretty much does whatever the free Launcher Pro does, except for the all home-screen views.
Maybe you may want to take a look at the NetFront Screen as well. A launcher of different concept, which I still think more works need to be done and more performance upgrade (have lags on my AOSP-loaded Desire).
Other wise, really good jobs on the spreadsheet. Appreciate it.

Have you tried Sweeter Home?

this is great, but just to let you know LPP has "resizable home screen" of 10x10 also

nepentanova said:
i thought there were only 2 gestures in GO Launcher, swipe up / down on home page (not just dock). perhaps we have our terminology mixed up..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can set swipe up actions for dock icons. Just long=tap a dock icon and hit "change gesture."
This means that the dock of GO Launcher can do 10 things instead of 5, or 30 if you use the scrollable dock option.
When you update the dock notes you may want to update the app drawer notes too. You can change the default 4x4 view in the app drawer to 4x5 and 5x5, just like you can for the home screens.
Another GO Launcher note: when you use it it sends data home (probably usage stats). If you don't want GO to phone home you should block it with DroidWall. (Maybe the other launchers phone home too?)