So I’m contemplating rooting my new Galaxy S4.

This article in Lifehacker.com gives the top 10 reasons why one should root an Android phone.

The following information is lifted from laptopmag.com, a guide written by David Cogen, and seems to be among the better guides for rooting an S4.

Need to remove some of the bloatware on your Samsung Galaxy S4? Want to edit what applications can be used with the device’s multi window feature? All of this is possible and more if you root  your phone. Rooting is the process of gaining  administrative or “root” access to your device, which gives you access to all the directories, commands, and subsystems. Interested? Here’s how to gain root access on the Samsung Galaxy S4.

1. Download and install Samsung’s USB Drivers.

2. Pull down the notification bar and tap the Settings icon.

3. Tap More > About Device.

4. Tap Build Number repeatedly until the device pops up a notification saying “You are now a Developer”.

5. Go back and tap on Developer Options.

6. Turn USB Debugging on.

7. Plug your device in via USB cable and wait for the drivers to install.

8. Download the Motochopper program to your desktop.

Motochopper (the download is in the first post in the thread)

9. Extract the .zip file to your desktop.

10a. Double click the run.bat file inside the the newly extracted folder if on Windows.

10b. If on a mac, open Terminal (inside Applications > Utilities) and then type the following into Terminal with hitting enter at the end of each line:

cd desktop
cd motochopper
./run.sh

11. Select OK on the device when prompted.

12. Once it’s all done, check for SuperSU in your applications drawer. If it’s there, you’re all set.

David Cogen is a founder of TheUnlockr.com, the popular site for rooting, jailbreaking, hacking, modding, and other how tos to show you how to unlock your device’s true potential. They even have a popular ROM repository. Check out TheUnlockr.com for all your Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone how tos.