HTC One S
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Root, S-Off, RUU
First of all, why root?
Before you are able to utilize any of the amazing custom roms available, you will need to root your phone. However, there are many other reasons why rooting can greatly enhance your android experience. To those that used iphones, rooting is the equivalent of jailbreaking, and basically unlocks your restrictions and gives you full access to everything on your phone. There are a couple reasons why rooting may be beneficial...
1. Privacy Guard/Apps Ops - Dislike the permissions that some apps want and the fact that they can see your contacts, texts, and personal information? With apps ops, you can limit permissions on a per apps basis.
2. Adblock - Who doesn't like ad block?
3. AOSP lockscreen - Especially to those Samsung users that cannot have security and a camera widget at the same time, this is a perfect alternative.
4. Battery friendly - With apps that require root, you can greatly increase your battery life and functionality
5. Latest updates - And of course, there are the beautiful custom roms. Never stay behind in the android world because you don't get OTA's. Benefit from the roms made by xda developers and get the latest android version.
Sounds good? Let's root
1. Privacy Guard/Apps Ops - Dislike the permissions that some apps want and the fact that they can see your contacts, texts, and personal information? With apps ops, you can limit permissions on a per apps basis.
2. Adblock - Who doesn't like ad block?
3. AOSP lockscreen - Especially to those Samsung users that cannot have security and a camera widget at the same time, this is a perfect alternative.
4. Battery friendly - With apps that require root, you can greatly increase your battery life and functionality
5. Latest updates - And of course, there are the beautiful custom roms. Never stay behind in the android world because you don't get OTA's. Benefit from the roms made by xda developers and get the latest android version.
Sounds good? Let's root
Rooting
To root, you essentially need to unlock your bootloader and flash a custom TWRP.
Unlocking bootloader is done at HTCDev (our device is "all other supported models) and it has detailed instructions on how to do it. If however, you cannot follow or simply want a faster alternative, try an all in one toolkit courtesy of hasoon2000.
Your next step would be to flash a twrp. I'd suggest that you don't use the ones in the toolkit as they might be outdated. Pick one from here or use TWRPSELinux for android 4.4 (for S4 variants with hboot 2.15 or lower. I don't know anything about S3 and hboot 2.16)
type "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img" in adb or use the toolkit.
***Note, if you are done here, I'd suggest that you make a nandroid backup before flashing something else. Additionally, keep your unlock token as you may need it later. Lastly, know that you are s-on, meaning you will need to flash the boot.img separately after each new rom. Look in the toolkit***
Unlocking bootloader is done at HTCDev (our device is "all other supported models) and it has detailed instructions on how to do it. If however, you cannot follow or simply want a faster alternative, try an all in one toolkit courtesy of hasoon2000.
Your next step would be to flash a twrp. I'd suggest that you don't use the ones in the toolkit as they might be outdated. Pick one from here or use TWRPSELinux for android 4.4 (for S4 variants with hboot 2.15 or lower. I don't know anything about S3 and hboot 2.16)
type "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img" in adb or use the toolkit.
***Note, if you are done here, I'd suggest that you make a nandroid backup before flashing something else. Additionally, keep your unlock token as you may need it later. Lastly, know that you are s-on, meaning you will need to flash the boot.img separately after each new rom. Look in the toolkit***
S-Off
Firstly, what is S-Off? This is a feature present in HTC phones that turns the "security off", menaing that you no longer need to flash the boot.img separately, and that you can change your firmware, radio, etc easily. However, note that the lack of security also means that you can seriously brick your phone if you flash the wrong rom. No security = more functions & more responsibility
There are three ways of achieving s-off. Before downloading, please read all instructions. Whatever you do to your phone is your responsibility alone
The most recent of them all, this program was what gave me s-off. The great thing they have universal programs, meaning they can be used on almost "[any] modern Qualcomm based HTC device". It also supports custom roms, which greatly simplifies everything. It is extremely easy to use (it's a one click process) and takes less than 10 minutes. Check out their xda thread here.
Also easy to use, but has build specific programs. I have less to say here because they didn't have one for my carrier.
I like to call this the manual method as it is not one click. If you don't have hboot 2.15, try this out.