Update HTC Desire with Jelly Bean based AOKP Custom ROM

Once upon a time, HTC Desire was the most popular Android phone available in the market. But now, it is quiet old & therefore it has been dropped out by HTC from software upgrading support. But you need not to be worried, as custom ROMs are there for you to provide taste of latest Android version on your HTC Desire. Thanks to developers (custom ROM makers) for paying continuous attention in ROM development for HTC Desire, which is resulted in another Jelly Bean 4.1 based custom ROM : AOKP to come out for it. Courtesy to XDA Senior Member  for putting his efforts in making AOKP ROM for the same.
AOKP is based on latest Android 4.1 Jelly bean, which offers lots of customizable functionality along with the features of Jelly Bean. That’s why,  it is getting more popular amongst the other custom ROMs available for the same. However, AOKP ROM is under development and features like USB Tethering & Video recording aren’t working yet properly. But if you are comfortable to go ahead with it then this might be the best ROM for you.
Disclaimer: The steps given in this article are considered to be risky & can cause damage to your device. You should not try to attempt these things if you aren’t aware of it. Please follow this guide completely at your own risk. If any damage happened to your device, we won’t be held liable for it.
Pre-Requisites before installing a Custom ROM :

• Charge your device up to 70% battery level so that installation procedure won’t be interrupted.

• After applying this update, you are going to erase all the data stored on phone memory. Therefore, it is highly recommended to backup all your data from the same, which includes contacts, messages (SMS/MMS), call logs, Internet APNs etc.

• Ensure that you have a custom recovery like clockworkmod installed on your phone

Procedure to Update HTC Desire with Jelly Bean based AOKP ROM :

• Download latest version of AOKP ROM from official ROM development page (link is mentioned below) :

1. AOKP custom ROM for  HTC Desire

• Download Google Apps (Gmail, Maps, GTalk, Play Store etc.) which need to be flashed manually since they are not present in the ROM by default.

1. Google Apps for Jelly Bean

• After downloading ROM package & Google Apps, connect your phone to the PC. Enable mass storage mode to access SD card data & transfer both the files on it.

• Disconnect the phone from computer & boot in recovery mode. For getting into the recovery mode, switch off the device, press & hold Volume Down button + Power key. You’ll be landed in bootloader/HBOOT mode. Now highlight recovery option using volume up/down keys & select it using power button.

• After getting into CWM recovery, first & very essential step you need to do is take a nandroid backup of your current ROM so that it can be restored back (in case if anything goes wrong). To back up your current ROM, select Backup and Restore option from the recovery menu & on next screen, select backup. Now It will make a nandroid backup of whole system (excluding SD card). Wait for the backup process to get finished.

• Select wipe data/factory reset & wipe cache partition to wipe all the data & caches respectively from the phone memory.

• Now Select “install zip from sdcard” & then “choose zip from sdcard“. Select the ROM file from the location where you’ve transferred it earlier & press on Yes to flash the ROM.

• Wait for the ROM to get installed. After ROM gets successfully installed, your phone will land in the recovery mode.

• Again select “install zip from sdcard” followed by “choose zip from sdcard” & this time navigate Google apps package file (gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip). Press on Yes to install Google Apps.

• After flashing both the files, Select reboot system now to Restart the phone.

There you go. Android 4.1 based custom ROM : AOKP is now installed on your HTC Desire. For more information & latest updates, keep checking ROM development page. If you have got any queries, comment it below, we will try our best to sort out the same.
Tip: In case if you want to revert back to your previous ROM , enter into recovery mode (mentioned above). From the main menu, select Backup and Restore option & on next screen, select restore & choose the backup you would like to restore.