[Fire TV General] Finnzz:
So Amazon only pushed out the update that protects the FireTV update services in the last 1-2 months. If you have had updates blocked for the last two months, then your device never got the new file protections that Amazon pushed out. Keep updates blocked from this point forward.

If one of your devices (Mantis for example) did get the update with the new FireTV protections, then it is vulnerable but is fully functional in terms of using a custom launcher.

Amazon's first step was to silently push out update protection. The second step of breaking / disabling custom launchers has not happened yet, but will probably come in the form of a future update.

Devices that now have FireTV update services protected can still be blocked from getting any further updates. But this has to be done through the router or DNS server, and as you mentioned is much more of a PITA.

How to block software updates on the Amazon Fire TV or Fire TV Stick

All versions of the Amazon Fire TV will download and install software updates automatically. There is no option to disable or reject software updates. Whether you have a rooted Fire TV or not, this guide will show you all the methods for blocking software updates on Fire TV devices.

www.aftvnews.com

If you have successfully followed the router blocking method, then you should not be able to download this Amazon update file, according to the walkthrough:

https://d1s31zyz7dcc2d.cloudfront.net/e27138e3d67ba0def02d589e77b14cc4/update-kindle-bueller-51.6.1.7_user_617513220.bin

Try the link on your phone or laptop.

This covers most of what's new or changed in the last month. Currently Launcher Manager (LM) / Wolf Launcher (WL) can be installed on any FireOS6 and OS7 devices, even those that got FireTV updates protected.

LM / WL are independent of FireTV updates. LM / WL is installed without having to make any changes to updates. LM is really the secret sauce that makes custom launcher work properly. It disables Amazon Launcher, and there are a couple consequences. While Amazon Launcher is disabled some things will not work, like some searching. As you have noticed, the Amazon app store works, but you can't 'search' it because the search function depends on Amazon Launcher.

When you have installed LM, you can easily enable / disable WL and Amazon Launcher. If there is a feature like app store searching that you need, you can enable Amazon Launcher. After you are done in the app store, open LM and re-enable WL.

When LM enables / disables Amazon Launcher, this is independent of FireTV updates. So if you have updates blocked, they remain blocked the entire time.

Back to your questions, LM / WL can be installed on Mantis (FireOS6) and Toshiba FireTV (FireOS7). Updates on those two devices can be blocked if they have not received the FireTV update protection from Amazon in the last 1-2 months. Otherwise your router will have to do the blocking for them.

TiVo 4k is AndroidTV. Wolf made a variant of LM that works with AndroidTV. I think it's still listed on the OP with 'ATV' in the filename. WL will work on AndroidTV. There was another user on this thread that posted a modded WL with some changes for AndroidTV. WL itself is a mod of ATV Launcher so you could install that too. Really any Launcher is fine, it's LM that is more critical.

Updates on TiVo / Android TV are handled by different files, so you will have to Google how to block them on your TiVo model.

Lastly, Tank is on FireOS5, and I have no experience with it other that what I've seen others post here. Wolf has a special FireOS5 version of LM. The method it uses is different and not as clean. I've heard that it works mostly but occasionally the home button goes back to Amazon Launcher. If you have a very old version of FireOS5 you may have more permissions and other options for implementing a custom launcher.