Rooting Help, Advice etc for 99% Newb - Softbank HTC Desire

[Guest primalxconvoy]

Hi folks,

Firstly, than you all for the forum/boards. It's nice to come to a nice place were even newbs like me feel that they can throw questions that veterans might be bored to tears to read. My apologies for this if my topic is indeed as old as time (and as equally mundane to encounter).

Also, I would like to apologise, if apologies are needed, regarding this new thread, as I intend to join related forums hosted elsewhere, and to save me some time, I will probably copy and paste this at those sites in order to maximise my chances of help. A sort of "help me please, I'm desperate spam", if you will.

As you can probably see from the thread description, I own an HTC Desire. I live in Japan and I got it from Softbank one year ago. Three days before the 1 year warranty expired, so did the phone, for no reason. I was planning on having the wretched thing serviced anyway prior to rooting it (in order to have a "new" experience on my phone, which is cheaper than buying a new one), so my phone's demise was a mixed blessing.

Before I get into the begging for help, I'd like to explain what it is that I want from my phone, so you can get a better picture of if rooting and any subsequent fiddling is really required in order to achieve them. I've read around that rooting isn't a magic bullet that can suddenly cure Android of the many ills that plague it, but it can be useful. I also read that many newbs like myself may not have the skills or knowledge to understand rooting, so I'll present below the reasons I want for rooting/etc. I also understand that perhaps some of these things may not be able to be changed by rooting, but here goes:

- better video camera (my phone camera will only save video files in ".3gp" container format, even though the options say ".mp4". My PS3 won't read 3gp, but I've seen evidence of a file that can be put onto rooted phones which is a modified camera that saves the files as "pure" mp4 files, which would really help me.

- free up the limited memory. The HTC Desire, as you know, has bugger all memory. I would like to remove "useless" apps that I don"t often use, or ones which I have found better replacements for via the marketplace, web site bookmarks or sideloaded apps. Examples of "useless" apps or programs that I want to remove include the official Facebook app, Gmail and most other Google made apps, Twitter, etc.

- Improved MMS app. Softbank phones in Japan send emails known as "MMS". Softbank's native email app is about as much use as Ann Franke's drum-kit, so I would like to install the root-only file that allows me to send and receive MMS on Softbank's network. This file was modified from a similar file found on Softbank's iPhones.

- Improved torch/flash-light. I want to be able to remap a hardware button, when the phone is sleeping that, after long-press, turns on/off a torch/flashlight app.

- complete or semi-removal of HTC Sense. I'm not that interested in their wigets, it seems to hog memory, plus I've heard that Sense isn't as good as stock android? Its also the reason why I cant upgrade to 2.3 gingerbread, I think. I'm worried that I'll "lose" the basic feel of the phone, but I've read that stock or custom screens/roms or what have you trump sense, and even incorporate some sense aspects, so it's a good idea, right?

- screen grabs. I've heard that only rooted devices can do this.

- answer-phone/visual voice mail. I would like some sort of app that allows me to set up an internal phone answer service and message playback, without the need to ring my phone network's service.

There are other things that I want but I suspect baby steps are needed. I plan on backing up the phone, rooting it with the option to revert back to it's factory status if I need to send it in for repairs. My warranty is expired now, but I've got a monthly phone insurance plan that covers most repairs I think.

So, here I come to the help request. What do I do, and how do I go about it? I suspect it's something like creating a backup of the phone, rooting it and THEN after it is open, the phone can be fiddled with. I'm worried that I'll bugger it up as all the guides to rooting say the Desire is tough to root PLUS I've only read guides that are not about the Softbank version, so I'm worried there are additional steps needed for the phone to be rooted.

I'm also worried that all the app settings on my SD card (which are still intact, I think) won't work when I finally re-install the apps from the marketplace, or side load them, meaning that I'll have to set them up again.

Regardless, here are my phone specs:

Model: HTC Desire (Softbank)

OS: Either 2.1/2.2 (as it's just come back from the repair shop and I've got to pick it up).

The phone will probably be a blank slate as they probably hard-resetted it (the button presses given in guides wouldn't work on my phone).

After one, long frustrating and depressing year with my Android, I'm almost ready to throw in the towel and get an iPhone. My iPhone chums, most techies, get a giggle every time my Android can't do even the simplest of things that their phones can. In fact, my phone broke infront of my iPhone/pad mate, who couldn't believe how poor it was.

Please help me!

Thank you all for your help and if you sat through and read this all, thanks for your time and apologies for the long winded thread. I've not had the opportunity to actually write something like this to any chums as everyone I know has either got an iPhone, or are blissfully unaware and use Androids worse than mine.