How far can one go using thier stock ROM

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CrazYmonkeY159

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So guys. I have an HTC Desire HD. still new to Android (about 2 weeks since i got this phone)

I am still a little bit scared to flash a custom ROM on my device. so i come with a question. how far can i customise my UI while sticking to my stock HTC Sense ROM? I've seen some great skins though sadly for other roms. I think HTCSense gets the job done perfectly well, but i just think it could use a little UI tweaking because lets be honest who wants thier phone to look like it just came out of the box anyways?

So basically my question is; are my customization options vastly limited if i stick to this ROM or is there hope for me?
 
You can go pretty far without custom ROMs (or even rooting for that matter), though it may require some weird workarounds.

There are many home replacements on the market that you can use. I suggest LauncherPro(it's free, but there is a paid version that you can get to via Fede's site) or ADWLauncher. LauncherPro is really fast but is a little lacking on the customisation side, while ADW lets you customise everything out the wazoo and there are a lot of skins available for it. Another option is ADWLauncherEx - it's an extended version of ADWLauncher and is paid, but you can get it from AndroidPIT (one of the many alternative Android Markets). I've been using it for the past few weeks and I really like it. The issue with home replacements is that you can't use your HTC Sense widgets on them at all (HTC packages them separately to your normal widgets), so you'll have to look for some alternatives.

There are also apps to customise your lock screen (search for them, I can't remember what they are). Maybe you can tell us what you want to customise and we can try and point you at some apps that can help?
 
I basically only want to customise my Home Screen. The HTC default clock widget looks too clunky for my liking. A while back I saw someone on XDA who had a minimalist theme ( i think it was on revolution ) anyways. i just want to make it look different, not too picky at this stage. how do you access these other android markets? do you do it through the browser or?
 
CrazYmonkeY159 said:
I basically only want to customise my Home Screen. The HTC default clock widget looks too clunky for my liking. A while back I saw someone on XDA who had a minimalist theme ( i think it was on revolution ) anyways. i just want to make it look different, not too picky at this stage. how do you access these other android markets? do you do it through the browser or?
Click to expand...

You can get other markets by searching for them in your browser. On the site there should be a link that lets you DL the .apk and then you can install it (just remember to check Settings -> Applications -> Allow Unknown Sources). Then it works very similar to the Android Market and most of them use Paypal or Google Checkout for payments.

As for the minimalist widgets: Do you mean Clockr and things like that?
 
I can also vouch for ADW.launcher. It lets you change everything from number & location of homescreens to icons for your shortcuts, and you can even remove the notification bar (If you would want to) Like Hawkies said, there are also apps that let you change your lockscreen (although all the ones I've seen require root, which is REALLY easy and reversible on Android anyways) There are also ones that show all kinds of stuff in the notification bar, sound editors that let you make custom ringtones without using a pc etc etc. So ja what do you need?
 
O yes I like the minimalist look myself.. You need the Tajm (or clockr) and Battstat widgets, they're on the market, for free. Looks very nice with the right wallpaper. The other "markets" are just websites, you can browse them from your phone, or on the pc screen and then just scan the barcode to download the app. For example 101bestandroidapps, Androidzoom, or my favorite, appbrain. Although you should have a setting somewhere to allow non-market apps or something, that should be ticked first.
 
Last edited:
i found it!

HTCDHDminimal.png


source

That (or some derivation of it) looks good for me, although there is alot of stuff happening on the homescreen, everything else is right up my alley
 
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