Relatively simple, but there are some potentially confusing steps. Well worth doing, just to be able to install a sensible number of apps (I didn’t get beyond about 20 before starting to run out of disk space).

First you need a GoldCard SD card if you have an operator supplied phone (mine was a free upgrade from O2). The instructions just work

  • Use an old SD card (NB you can use the format option on the Desire to format it: Settings->SD card and storage->SD card…).
  • You don’t need to install the sdk, just have it on your system.

Then follow the HTC Desire rooting guide. Again, it just works.

  • I used the second file for download (marked as ONLY if) as my fastboot was 0.80.xxxx and my system 1.21.xxx (I think).
  • I swapped the GoldCard over for the 8Gb card from my Hero once I had completed step one.
  • When you get back the recovery screen and run step 2, I saw a red icon on screen which threw me slightly, but it appeared to have done the trick. I’m not sure I actually ran the rootedupdate.zip myself following step 2, but when I turned the phone back on, I had to setup once more, so it had clearly been wiped.
  • Getting to recovery works fine as per the instructions, but again, the icon is red and looks slightly like there is an error: once you’ve heard the USB connect (bong bong on Windows 7) you run the recovery script and the normal screen (Nandroid backup etc) appears on the Desire.
  • If you want to use A2SD (to put your applications on the SD card) there is an option to partition SD card on the recovery menu. I suggest you take it.

I then baked a custom ROM and installed it in the normal way: copy the zipped ROM over to the Desire’s SD card, boot up in recovery mode and install zipped ROM.

Bingo. Now to work on the slightly poor battery life and I’ll be more than happy.