Friday, September 2, 2011

Making Advanced Browser Default On TouchPad

As always, I'm not responsible if by following this guide you brick your TouchPad, do at your own risk.

If you're like me (and thousands of other bargain hunting geeks) and snapped up a cheap HP TouchPad, I'm sure you're using the third party browser Advanced Browser from the App Catalog.

Whilst it is much better than the stock browser, it's not without it's problems. The most common complaints I've seen on forums and reviews are:
1. Unable to make it the default browser that opens when clicking links in other apps, eg. email etc.
2. It covers the status/notification bar.

I'll be showing how to fix both of this. But lets make it default in this post. "Let's'a'go"

Method 1 - (Disable/Hide Default browser)
1. Install Preware if you haven't already (google will help you with this)
2. Install Internalz Pro from Preware.
3. Open Internalz Pro -> app name in top left corner of the screen -> Preferences -> turn on 'Master Mode' -> app name again -> close
4. Navigate to /usr/palm/
5. Create a new directory called 'hidden' (or anything really)
6. Navigate to /usr/palm/applications
7. Move the directory com.palm.app.browser into the newly created hidden directory
8. Navigate to /media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/applications/com.maklesoft.browser
9. Open appinfo.json
10. Change the second line, starting with "id" to:
"id": "com.palm.app.browser"
11. Restart you tablet
12. Done

Method 2 - (Make Advanced Browser default, but stock browser still useable)
1. Install Preware if you haven't already (google will help you with this)
2. Install Internalz Pro from Preware.
3. Open Internalz Pro -> app name in top left corner of the screen -> Preferences -> turn on 'Master Mode' -> app name again -> close
4. Open /usr/palm/applications/com.palm.app.browser
5. Change the second line, starting with "id" to:
"id": "com.palm.app.browserOrg"
6. Open /media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/applications/com.maklesoft.browser
5. Change the second line, starting with "id" to:
"id": "com.palm.app.browser"
7. Restart you tablet
8. Done
Posted by at

15 comments:

  1. soh20September 3, 2011 at 6:54 AM

    get an error

    no file hanlder found for
    /media/cryptofs/apps/usr/palm/.../appinfo.json

    ReplyDelete
  2. soh20September 3, 2011 at 4:02 PM

    nvm i just transfered the file to my mac and edited. works great! thanks for the tut.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MutonSeptember 3, 2011 at 5:07 PM

    nice one mate!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2011 at 8:01 AM

    this hack seems to break the "add to launcher" in the advanced browser--now it comes up with all fields blank. Used to have the url and site name already there.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousSeptember 9, 2011 at 8:46 AM

    btw, I used the second hack

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2011 at 7:32 AM

    OK, after using the patches on this site the default browser is broken--doesn't hold history, can't add bookmarks or to launcher, and for some reason all preferences are turned off at times--JS, flash, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  7. RameshSeptember 10, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    in method 2 u may wanna mention that they have to edit the appinfo.json file.

    ReplyDelete
  8. daoneiSeptember 17, 2011 at 7:04 PM

    So I just tried method 2 and can't stand how slow Advanced Browser loads...I am so sorry, but can anyone tell me what the original texts were on the appinfo.json files? I think the first one was "com.palm.app.browser" but what was the second one? Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownSeptember 27, 2011 at 12:39 AM

    com.maklesoft.browser

    ReplyDelete
  10. BostitchSeptember 27, 2011 at 2:07 AM

    this doesn't work on my TP. Makes the advanced browser icon disappear?

    ReplyDelete
  11. blake711October 18, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    3.0.4 killed this patch makes adv browser disapeare when you have this patch installed

    ReplyDelete
  12. yanyanchakhooOctober 18, 2011 at 9:57 PM

    After I set adv browser as default, I can't save the preference settings. Each time I launch adv browser, "full screen" and "Open Tabs in background" are OFF. I have to turn on them at every launch.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Nadav ShofetOctober 19, 2011 at 2:03 PM

    I got the same issue as yanyan. Obviously its because we changed the name so somehow that screws up the referencing to the preferences.
    any ideas on how to fix it?

    ReplyDelete
  14. blake711October 29, 2011 at 5:46 AM

    Is anything being done to make this work with 3.0.4

    ReplyDelete
  15. DanielJanuary 19, 2012 at 2:29 PM

    Has anyone tried the first method with 3.0.4? I tried the second method and it caused Advanced Browser to disappear.

    ReplyDelete

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