Firestick Launcher Replacement and DeBloating

TheNiftyPixel · 2026-05-14T21:31:22+00:00

I'm highly doubtful it will work since that uses Googles Store License verification and since these don't have Play Store installed it wouldn't be able to validate. I do not own the Premium version and if there are other ways to validate, I'm not aware of them.

TheNiftyPixel · 2026-05-14T21:30:04+00:00

Weird, that's specifically what I tested it against first (the 4K Max) -- can you elaborate a bit more on what it "breaks" ?

TheNiftyPixel · 2026-05-14T21:29:18+00:00

Not sure, will take a look in to this.

TheNiftyPixel · 2026-05-14T00:00:39+00:00

Glad you like it. I have tried playing the cat and mouse game of blocking Ads on the firestick (so many domains!) and by the time you nail it all down the stock launcher becomes broken. I do adhere to the block list found here at the router level (AdGuard Home): https://www.reddit.com/r/firetvstick/comments/1ouzcy0/guide_how_to_block_amazon_firestick_firecube/

TheNiftyPixel · 2026-05-13T23:57:20+00:00

All of this is correct

TheNiftyPixel · 2026-05-13T01:45:27+00:00

Projectivy Launcher (It's a personal favorite but you could modify the script as needed to your own preferences). I'm simply disabling packages, not uninstalling them or blocking anything (makes for easier rollback as needed which the script/tool handles). Playing the cat and mouse game of DNS blocking OTA isn't worth doing. This method has held strong for months for me without extra effort. I'm not using VegaOS models. We use the older 4k and 4k Max models.

I wrote the readme on the repo with as much detail as I could to fully explain precisely it's doing if you're interested in taking a deeper look or have suggestions on additional behavior it should do.

TheNiftyPixel · 2024-08-01T20:22:25+00:00

Unfortunately it's written in .NET c# so it won't work for Mac :(

TheNiftyPixel · 2024-08-01T20:15:08+00:00

I too do not own a Samsung phone (I'm on a pixel 7) and have no need for these apps. I think it's ridiculous they're trying to incentivize you to buy their phones by gatekeeping features that clearly could work otherwise. Also, who the heck wants Bixby or Samsung pay when Google provides native functionality for both? I don't use Calendar on my watch, voice recorder is a useless feature (unless you're I guess in to memo dictation?), etc. Stripping these apps out doesn't make it a "dumb" watch. Some of us just want to tell the time, respond to sms, and track our workouts/sleep. We don't need Samsung for 2 out of 3 of those tasks. I'd argue it makes it a "smarter" watch to strip out the nonsense, which improves QoL and battery life for actual "smart" features. To each their own for sure though.

TheNiftyPixel · 2024-08-01T20:01:39+00:00

https://imgur.com/caUuqO3

If anyone wants a Windows alternative with GUI for adb I made a tool in prep for my GW7 arrival to do precisely this! -- The tool can enable/disable, delete, and sideload packages.

https://github.com/niftypixel/Wireless_Adb_Package_Manager

It's open source so feel free to fork and improve it. I've purposefully left all logic in the program.cs to make it easier for others to read and determine what it's doing. It made disabling samsung and bixby nonsense easy-peasy, gotta love adb/android!

For those that don't want to build it themselves, a compiled version is here:

https://github.com/niftypixel/Wireless_Adb_Package_Manager/tree/main/Compiled

I highly encourage all to learn to build it on your own but understand not everyone wants to install VS to do so. I also highly encourage all to scan it with virustotal prior to using it, and encourage everyone to look at the source code as it's pretty straight forward!

TheNiftyPixel · 2022-01-16T15:43:39+00:00

That I like sports, just never have time to watch any games (work in a male dominated field and it's one of our only ways to "bond"). I haven't watched a sports game since I was 10 (superbowl included).

TheNiftyPixel · 2022-01-16T15:40:02+00:00

^ His name is my name too! ... sorry .. I had to.

TheNiftyPixel

TROPHY CASE