So you’ve rooted your Barnes & Noble NOOK Tablet and installed the Android Market so you can download some extra apps. But those apps don’t show up in the Barnes & Noble app library, so you have to install a new app launcher… and then you have to use the search option to look up the app launcher every time you want to get to it, right?

Not necessarily. It turns out there’s a couple of ways to use a third party app launcher such as GO Launcher Ex as your default app launcher on the NOOK Tablet.

The easiest is to simply shut down your NOOK Tablet and then press the power button to start it up again. When you unlock the screen, a menu will pop up asking if you want to use Home or GO Launcher EX. There’s also a little box that you can check to set whichever option you choose as your default.

If you check that box and then hit GO Launcher (or any other launcher app), then every time you reboot your NOOK Tablet it will load that launcher instead of the original Home app.

You can also always bring up the B&N NOOK home screen by hitting the N button on the tablet and then selecting the Home option.

Unfortunately the NOOK Tablet only has that N button. There’s no Home button. That means getting back to the GO Launcher home screen can be much trickier. But it turns out there’s an easy solution to that problem.

Update: Actually, there are two solutions. Xda-developers forum member gojimi has created an app called HomeCatcher which turns the NOOK Tablet N button into a Home button. It’s still in the testing phases, so install with caution. 

You can find a free app called Button Savior in the Android Market. It’s designed to let you bring up on-screen home, back, menu, search, and other buttons. The idea is that you won’t have to keep mashing the buttons on your smartphone if you use Button Savior — but the app works quite nicely on tablets such as the NOOK Tablet which don’t have any physical buttons.

Button Savior requires root access, but as long as you have SuperUser installed and running properly, you should be able to use the app.

It adds a semi-transparent arrow to the right side of your screen. Tap the arrow and buttons will pop up allowing you to access home, back, or menu functions from any screen. This even works if you’re using the default B&N apps. In other words, you can get to your GO Launcher EX home screen from anywhere on your device using Button Savior.

The free version of the app lets you adjust the look and position of the buttons. If you want to change the button order or access other features you can buy a Pro key for $1.49.

Another tool that comes in handy for getting the most of the NOOK Tablet is Any Cut. It allows you to create a shortcut to pretty much any application or setting on your Android device.

That might not sound very useful at first… but when you go to the Settings menu on the NOOK Tablet you don’t actually get to see all the settings. For instance you can’t access the option that lets you enable or disable USB debugging, or the tool that lets you manage your apps by force closing or uninstalling selected apps.

All you have to do to create a home screen shortcut to any of those functions is fire up AnyCut, create a new shortcut, choose “Activities,” and scroll down until you find the activity you’re looking for. In the examples mentioned above, you’d want the Development and Manage Applications activities.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,543 other subscribers

11 replies on “Rooted NOOK Tablet tweaks: adding a home button, settings shortcuts”

  1. I cannot get go launcher to work. It constantly reloads or at least that is what it seems like. Every few seconds the screen flashes black and the the Home Screen reappears and this happens regardless of where you are or what you are doing. Even if it is already on Home Screen it flashes black and the HS reappears. Unusable. 🙁

  2. does anyone know how to unlock the nook tablet without pressing the “N” button? button savior can’t help me unlock it without pressing the home button.
    when i use tablet or phone, i don’t want to press the home button (or “N” button in the nook tablet), because i don’t know what can i do when it’s not working

  3. Does anybody know how to expand the icons? I’m using Go Launcher Ex and the icons are so tiny. I’ve tried going to preferences to expand them but it doesn’t seem to work. they’re too small as of now and its driving me crazy!

  4. I don’t see either “Development” nor “Manage Applications” after pushing “Activity” button of Any Cut. It was the same before I rooted the Nook Tablet (when I sideloaded Any Cut) and after I rooted it and installed it from the market. Are you sure this works on nook tablet, and what could be wrong?

      1. This is all I see when I push “add new shortcut” and than “Activity”. There is nothing to scroll below it, and it did not change after rooting. I don’t have problems
        with any other programs – go launch, buttons, file manager,
        GApps all installed fine and works.
        Anybody else have this problem? Any ideas?

        1. Even though you don’t see a scroll bar, you can still scroll down bye dragging the list with your finger.

Comments are closed.