How to Change Your Default Launcher (TouchWiz) and Make the Changes Last

Hi all, I recently just got a new phone (Samsung Galaxy S4) and if you're like me, you would want to change the default launcher which is TouchWiz to something more advanced like LauncherPro.

I used LauncherPro on my S2 before and it meet all my needs, so I thought of installing it on my new phone. But after running it for a few minutes, it was buggy and the app crashed several times. Checking the app on Google Play, I was shocked to find that the app was last updated on March 2011, which means that it was abandoned by its developer. Take note guys, most of the time you don't want to run app that haven't receive frequent updates, especially if you encountered problems with the current version of the app.

So I switched over to Nova Launcher, which have been running smoothly on my Nexus 7. But it won't stay as the default launcher. It will switched back to TouchWiz whenever I pressed the 'Home' button. Luckily, I found the solution and I'm going to share them in this post.

Initially, I set the default launcher using the Home Switcher app, but it didn't work really well. Again, it will reset back to TouchWiz whenever I pressed the 'Home' button, like I always do whenever I want to switch to another app.


The fix:
Here's how you can set the default launcher to the launcher of your choice (in my case, it's Nova Launcher). You don't have to uninstall anything or install anything, except maybe your new favourite launcher. Thanks to Stack Exchange's Bosco for the tip. Note that, the following steps WON'T UNINSTALL TouchWiz as Bosco claimed, it will only SELECT the default launcher.

1. Press and hold the 'home' button. (the middle button on your Samsung mobile)

2. At the new screen, select the pie chart icon on the bottom left.

3. Then, select 'Clear' next to TouchWiz or whichever launcher default you want to reset.

4. Next, press the 'home' button again. You should see a menu titled 'Complete action using'. Select your new default launcher (Nova Launcher in my case) and press 'Always'.

5. You should now see the message box titled 'Clear defaults' with the message 'Clear default in System settings > Apps > Downloaded.' Press 'OK' and you're done.

Enjoy your new launcher!

I liked Nova Launcher and if you're looking for a new launcher to replace TouchWiz may I ask that you consider Nova Launcher? I'm sure that you will like it too as it's fast and comes with subgrid positioning, scrollable dock plus many more goodies.

Cool right? Please do tell me how well it go and how has this help you?

Productivity tip coming next. Stay tuned!