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How to remove pre-installed apps like Peep and Friend Stream from my HTC phone?
How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor?

I've just treated myself to an HTC Desire HD. I now want to get rid of quite a lot of the bloat that comes pre-installed. E.g. things like HTC's 'Stocks' widget which isn't visible on the Market and doesn't have an Uninstall option on the handsets Application Manager.

My googling around has lead me to the conclusion that to do this I'll need to root my phone and consequently invalidate my UK warranty. Is this correct or is there another way?



Yes, you will have to root and invalidate your warranty to remove these apps. Most of the time however you can "un-root" and no one will be the wiser.

  • Thanks. Can you recommend a safe (or as safe as is possible) tool/methodology/process? – 5arx Mar 4 '11 at 15:26
  • Unfortunately I am not familiar with the Desire HD, but the guides on XDA (such as this one) are generally reliable. There isn't a true unroot, you apparently have to re-flash a stock ROM (they are here), but that's actually better as it will be exactly what the manufacturer/carrier wants. – Matthew Read Mar 4 '11 at 15:40

You can also attempt to go directly to Settings>Applications>Manage Applications and see if you can uninstall from there. If not, those HTC things you mention are baked into the OS version they are using, so you won't be able to uninstall it without (possibly) rooting or even installing a community version such as CyanogenMod.

  • Thanks for your response - I have tried going thru Manage Applications with no success - the option to uninstall is not there. I can't even seem to disable the auto-start for these HTC apps. Very annoying as they consume a lot of resources and like to go online by themselves :-( Do you think I'll lose much by switching from what is presumably a manufacturer/device-specific version of Android to a generic/vanilla one? – 5arx Mar 4 '11 at 13:04
  • Yeah, it sucks that it works the way it does, but until Google cracks down on uninstallable crapware, that's the reality. I doubt you will lose anything by using a community OS such as CyanogenMod, although it can be a scary process to install even though the risk is usually quite low. I'd check them out and see what they have to offer if you really want a clean build of Android. – Jake Basile Mar 4 '11 at 14:10
