Top 5 benefits of Rooting your Android

I’m not going to attempt to reinvent the wheel but a lot of people keep asking about rooting their Droids. I was nervous about rooting and had not real strong motivation to do it but once I started having Froyo related issues that I couldn’t solve I decided to give it a try. There are some great resources out there to help you root so I am going to post the links here for you.

One thing to note is that rooting your phone is nothing more than giving yourself full admin rights to manage your phone. This is what rooting means. Rooting in and of it self will make no other changes or modifications to your phone. It will allow you to run some very cool apps. It will also allow you to install a custom ROM to replace the stock ROM. This is where all the fun stuff comes in. ROM developers create some really amazing ROMs. Because of Charity ROM I now have GINGERBREAD on my OG Droid.

This one link covers the ins and outs of rooting with a step by step guide.
Root Droid Regardless of OS

Once rooted its up to you what ROM you want to use. There are different apps for managing different ROMS. They don’t all work with each other. You will have to choose what ROM works best for you. I am using Charity ROM at the moment and am really happy with it. Cyanogen ROMS are very popular too.

What is an Android Custom ROM and why is it used

I am using ROM Manager (paid version) and ClockworkMod Recovery (recommended in The guide to rooting).

ROMS are not found in the App Market. You need to find them on the Android forums.

Apps that are in the Market:

I use Titanium Backup Pro for backing up my apps, settings and data to my SD card. It also allows you to FREEZE and/or Uninstall CORE Apps you don’t want.

I also run SetCPU and have my 550MHZ Droid overclocking on demand to 1GHZ thanks to this ridiculously simply app.

I also still have Watchdog for monitoring buggy apps that hammer on my CPU but its really not necessary unless I think I have a bad app. This app also allows for freezing of apps and services but Titanium handles it better.

NEW!
Demystifying Custom Android Roms Part 1

Demystifying Custom Android Roms Part 2

Rooting Your Android Phone FAQ