[Fire HD 8 and HD 10 General] nyln:
I never finished this, please use Launcher Hijacker v3+ as it works much much better!

EDIT 09/23/16

I finally found a permanent solution to how to change fire launcher on the Amazon Fire without root. It works on any version (FireOS 5.3.1) on any tablet variant (7, HD 8, HD 10 etc...).

You can read the detailed tutorial at http://xdaforums.com/amazon-fire/development/tut-remove-default-launcher-amazon-fire-t3288310 but basically you run one command, must be done after reboot currently via adb shell:

Noval Launcher on Amazon Fire no-root:

nohup logcat -c; logcat | grep --line-buffered 'flg=0x10200000 cmp=com.amazon.firelauncher/.Launcher' | while read line; do am start com.teslacoilsw.launcher/.NovaLauncher; done &

That's it. Once you paste that into your adb shell you're done; you now have a default launcher programmatically set via ADB.

Optionally, you can install the modded firelauncher.apk so you can finally delete it without root :).

(this is optional, you wont have any launcher after doing this! backup your old APK!!)

adb install -r -d com.amazon.firelauncher.apk

... as you can now see this will -r reinstall and -d downgrade the launcher, causing it to crash and never open.

Thanks for your support guys, I love android!

EDIT:

I have updated with a new method that is much better, the only negative to this new method is when you hit the home button, for a brief moment you see the firelauncher. Performance, speed, and bugs are perfect.

Just paste this code in adb shell, I'm working on setting up nohup to work with it, when you close adb it will stop working.. Going to bed for now though.

#!/bin/bash
am monitor | while read -r line; do
if [[ $line == *"firelauncher"* ]]
then
am start [B]com.newlauncher.launcher[/B]
fi
done

I'm new to the whole Android scene, and recently I had acquired an Amazon Fire HD 8. The only complaint about this tablet is the lack of Google Play and the horrible firelauncher. There is currently no root options available for the Fire HD modles 8 & 10, so I have spent the time to develop a temporary workaround.

Please take a quick look at the developmental thread I previously created so we can collaborate to make a more efficient version of this:

http://xdaforums.com/hd8-hd10/development/amazon-fire-hd-8-10-remove-firelauncher-t3286646

Disclaimer:

If you plan on installing new applications/packages while this script is running you may have a hard time. Installing packages may take 2-10 minutes, or maybe not at all!

If you experience any problems you can undo everything by running the undo script attatched (unix), or by typing "adb shell ps | grep /system/bin/sh", you will see anywhere from 2-10 processes listed. For each type "adb shell kill -9 <pid>", pid would be the process ID, should be the first number you see on each line.

There is a small chance when you press the home button that it will load the regular firelauncher, do not fret, try again and it will go to whichever launcher you previously selected.

Performance may be slightly altered, if it becomes too bad to use try adjusting the script and change the interval at which it loops (set to 20 by default).

This is an alpha experiment, and I am a noob with Android so please bare with me

This is a noobish approach to disabling the firelauncher (com.amazon.firelauncher.apk), please do not judge it, this is also my first time releasing something for Android.

If you are using a unix operating system (like Linux or Mac), I have compiled a script that does the work for you! Windows users will have to wait and do it manually since I am unfamilar with batch (would someone like to help with this?)

Automatic Tool (easy, linux, mac only)

Step One:

Download the two script attachments:

remove_default_launcher.sh - disables amazon's firelauncher

re-endable_firelauncher(undo).sh - reverts the process, if you have any issues

Step Two:

Run the following commands to make the scripts executable:

chmod +x remove_default_launcher.sh
chmod +x re-endable_firelauncher(undo).sh

Here is a video showing you how to do this next step:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IVOa048UbY

Run the tool to remove amazon's nasty launcher!

./remove_default_launcher.sh

Step Three:

The script should automatically do everything, when it's done, check your Fire. Keep pressing the home button and switching between applications until you get the "Change default launcher" dialogue, make sure you have an alternative launcher installed beforehand or else you won't have a launcher! When it's all working how it should be go to step four!

Step Four:

Simply exit out of your terminal window, do not type anything, just exit ADB. The script will continue running!

This is what a successful window looks like, whenever you have confirmed it is working, close out of the ADB window and end that process.

Manually (harder, windows)

Step One:

Open up a new ADB shell window and type

adb shell

Step Two:

Once you are in the shell window, simply copy and paste this line of code and press return. It is just a simple bash script that loops the command "install -r -d "/system/priv-app/com.amazon.firelauncher/com.amazon.firelauncher.apk"" which will reinstall the firelauncher repeatedly, which temporary uninstalls it.

#!/system/bin/sh
nohup
while :
do
kill $!
sleep 1 & pm install -r -d "/system/priv-app/com.amazon.firelauncher/com.amazon.firelauncher.apk" & sleep 20; kill $!
kill $!
done &
exit
#press enter now

After pressing enter, you can watch it go to work, or you can close out of the adb window and unplug your device, it will continue to run until you kill the shell processes or reboot the device. Make sure you have an alternative launcher already installed so it can easily be set as default. EDIT: Reboot may not reset it, which is cool but could be annoying. To turn off this wonderful feature open up adb shell and use "ls | grep shell" and kill using "kill <pid>" all releated processes to /bin/shell or whatever. It may take up to a minute to reset.

If you have any issues at all please comment and I will send you a private message with detailed instructions catered to your specific issue!

If you are a dev, take a look at my unix auto-install script, it may help you figure it out yourself as well. I need someone who understands batch to help me write a windows version :).

I literally spent about 45 minutes working on this noobish approach, so if you find bugs or want to modify the script, simply post in the comments your version and why you think it is more efficient. If you want to help make a dedicated and more efficient approach to this, check out the development thread here (there are alternative methods here too):

http://xdaforums.com/hd8-hd10/development/amazon-fire-hd-8-10-remove-firelauncher-t3286646

This appears to be a very stable system actually, I recommend everyone does this to the Fire HD tablets!

I hope this helps someone, if this helps you please give me a thanks so I know it :)