Tutorial: How-to Change NVIDIA Shield TV Default Launcher to Custom Launcher (Windows Guide)
Change the launcher on your NVIDIA Shield TV to a custom launcher and remove all the ads and spam included with the default launcher. This tutorial will show you how to set a custom, third-party launcher as the default launcher for the NVIDIA Shield TV (all versions) using a Windows computer. You can choose your own custom launcher but I recommend FLauncher, which is a free, open-source launcher.
Replace NVIDIA Shield TV Launcher
I am using Windows 10 in this tutorial but the steps should be similar with other versions of Windows.
1. Install a launcher to your NVIDIA Shield TV - you can open the Google Play Store, search "Launcher", and download one that you like. I recommend FLauncher.
2. Return to the home page and go to Settings on the top-right corner.
3. Go to Device Preferences.
4. Go to About.
5. Go down to Build and click on it seven times. You should see, "You are now a developer!"
6. Press back on the remote to go back to Device Preferences and go down to Developer Options.
7. Go down and turn on Network Debugging.
8. Wait until it shows the IP address. Write this down.
9. On your Windows computer, download the SDK Platform Tools for Windows here: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools
10. Extract the downloaded file. It should contain a folder named "platform-tools". Move this folder to your C: drive.
11. Open Control Panel and search for "environment variables".
12. Select Edit environment variables for your account.
13. Under the Variable column, select Path and press Edit.
14. Press New, enter the path for the platform-tools folder, and hit OK. The path should be: C:\platform-tools
15. Run Command Prompt.
16. Copy and paste the following code into Command Prompt and press Enter. Make sure you replace IPADDRESS with the full IP address from step 8.
adb connect IPADDRESS
17. You should see a failed message in Command Prompt. On your NVIDIA Shield TV, you should see a Network Debugging message. Hit OK to allow your computer to connect to the device.
18. Make sure you are connected. Copy and paste the same code from before and press Enter. Make sure you replace IPADRESS with the full IP address from step 8.
adb connect IPADDRESS
19. You should see a message that you are already connected. Now copy and paste the following code into Command Prompt and press Enter. This will disable Android TV Home.
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tvlauncher
20. Copy and paste the following code into Command Prompt and press Enter. This will disable Android TV Core.
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tvrecommendations
21. Copy and paste the following code into Command Prompt and press Enter. This will disable Leanback Launcher.
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.leanbacklauncher
22. Finally, copy and paste the following code into Command Prompt and press Enter. This will disable Leanback Launcher Recommendations.
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.leanbacklauncher.recommendations
23. Press the home button on the NVIDIA Shield TV Remote and it should take you to the custom launcher. If you have more than one custom launcher installed, it will prompt you to select a default launcher.
That's it. The new launcher will replace the default launcher. If you want to revert back to the original NVIDIA Shield TV launcher, follow our tutorial here.