How to Root Your NOOK Tablet

Many of you have already seen or probably heard of the new Barnes and Noble NOOK Tablet. Yes it looks closely similar to the Nook Color but don’t be deceived by the looks. This newest tablet from Barnes and Noble is a mean machine sporting a 1 GHz dual-core processor with 1 GB of RAM.

And yes, this device can now be rooted. Thanks to the Android enthusiasts at XDA Developers, this mean machine can now be unleashed at full throttle.   Are you itching to try how this works? Let’s go ahead and have the rundown of all the steps on how to root your NOOK Tablet.

A word of caution before proceeding, this process will void the warranty of your device. Proceed at your own risk.

The Checklist

• Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer
• Usbdrivers.zip file. Download the file and save it to your computer. This is used to install the USB drivers for the NOOK Tablet.
• Nook&Zergy.zip file. Download this and save it to your computer. This is the file needed to root the tablet.

The Steps

1. You will have to enable debugging mode on the NOOK Tablet. To do this, you have to download and install an app from the Internet. So, you have to pull up the Web browser on your tablet and look for an app that you can download. You can download some free apps from GetJar for this.
2. After the app is completely downloaded, just tap on the Notification icon at the bottom left. Then, tap on the downloaded app to install.
3. When the first screen of the installation process comes up, tap on the Settings button.
4. On the Settings screen, enable “Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources”.
5. Next step is to access the Development settings screen and enable USB Debugging plus disable Auto Mount. You should find 2 USB Debugging options and both should be enabled.
6. Connect the tablet to the PC. Check if the PC now recognizes the tablet by going to the Device Manager on your computer. It should appear under Other Devices and would say NOOK Tablet.
7. Download Usbdrivers.zip and Nook&Zergy.zip (see links above).
8. Create a new folder called c:ntroot.
9. Extract the downloaded zip files into c:ntroot.
10. Open the folder containing the extracted files. Run the file called runmefirst.bat which will automatically open up the Device Manager window.
11. On the Device Manager window, right-click on NOOK Tablet and then choose to update the driver. Browse for the updated driver, which is located in c:ntrootusbdriver. The computer will complain that it could not verify the publisher of the driver. Choose to install the driver anyway.
12. The next step will be to run NookAndZergy.bat, which can be found under c:ntroot. This will start the automated process for rooting the NOOK Tablet. At the end of the rooting process, you will be given the option to install Google apps, which would also install the Android Market.

Your new NOOK Tablet should already be rooted. Now that it is already rooted, you can already do more things with your new tablet. With the Android Market app installed on the device, you can now enjoy more apps than you could ever enjoy without rooting your NOOK Tablet.

Do you have NOOK Tablet and have you rooted it using the method above? What apps have you installed on your tablet?