A common annoyance that many Galaxy Nexus users have often griped about is the inability of Ice Cream Sandwich to remove the Google Search bar from the homescreen. While many users don’t mind the Google Search bar hanging around, some just don’t want it and end up exasperated after not being able to turn off the widget from their homescreen.

Luckily, there’s a workaround available for that. The solution comes from developers on the XDA Developers site, and the solution not only removes the search bar but also enables a 4×5 grid, which provides 1 more row. The device originally has support for a 4×4 grid.

In this article, we’ll teach you how to rework that homescreen and give you a bigger grid, in addition to getting rid of the Google Search bar on the homescreen.

Installing the mod gives you a whole lot of features including the ability to remove the Google Search bar from the homescreen, the ability to choose between 3 to 5 homescreens, a 4×5 grid enabled in portrait mode, a vertical grid height that accommodates 5 rows, and a landscape view that has a 4×4 grid (4×5 when scaling is enabled). Take note that this mod does not remove Google Search functionality from your phone. Google Search will still work, but it will no longer be shown as a widget on your homescreen.

Requirements

• A rooted Galaxy Nexus. Check this for instructions.
• ClockworkMod installed on your device
• An alternate launcher app installed on your device, just in case the procedure breaks the native launcher in ICS.

Downloadable Mods

Download any of the following mods that you wish to install in unto your Galaxy Nexus:

Version 2

• Standard 5 Screens with Landscape – Download here
• Standard 5 Screens without Landscape – Download here
• 3 Screens in Landscape and Portrait – Download here
• 4 Screens without Landscape – Download here

Version 3 (Smaller Left / Right Margin)

• Standard 5 Screens with Landscape – Download here
• Standard 5 Screens without Landscape and Portrait – Download here
• 3 Screens in Landscape and Portrait – Download here
• 4 Screens without Landscape – Download here

Instructions

1. Download your desired mod from any of the links above. Whatever mod you choose will greatly affect how your homescreen would look like. Do not extract the ZIP files.
2. Connect your phone to your computer via USB cable.
3. Copy the ZIP file to the root of your phone’s internal storage.
4. Reboot your device and enter into ClockworkMod recovery mode. You can enter recovery mode by holding the “Volume Up” and “Volume Down” buttons and then pressing the “Power” button.
5. From the recovery mode menu, select “Wipe cache” and “Wipe Dalvik cache” from the list of options.
6. Select “Install zip from sd card”, then select “Choose zip from sdcard”.
7. Locate the ZIP file that you have recently transferred to your phone’s storage. Once the file is selected, the installation process will begin.
8. After the installation process is done reboot your device.

Congratulations! You have successfully disabled the Google Search bar in your homescreen.