General :: Remove Old Shortcut Icons From Homescreen During Custom ROM Installation?

Issue with a custom ROM I've been playing around with in an attempt at customizing it to meet my personal needs.

Basically, the custom ROM installation removes old, unwanted .apk's from the stock image it is replacing. This is done by a script/command in the META-INF->com->google->android->updater-script file. Here's an excerpt as an example:

Code:
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/system");
show_progress(1, 100);
package_extract_dir("system", "/system");delete("/system/app/Launcher2.apk");

However, while the script works perfectly to remove the actual apk's/apps from the device, once the custom ROM is loaded, the old shortcuts (to some of the apps that were uninstalled) remain on the homescreen (these shortcuts are placed there by default by the stock ROM). If you try to tap the shortcut, it simply states something to the effect of "this application is not installed on your device". While these "dead" shortcuts can be moved to the trash bin and deleted from the homescreen, it'd be nice if I could make it so the custom ROM installation automatically does this.

I've tried modifying the Launcher2.apk to reflect the changes I am looking for; but to no avail. In the Launcher2 /res/xml/default_workspace.xml file, I am easily able to specify which apps I do want shortcuts placed on the homescreen for during the installation. But - there doesn't seem to be a way for me to issue a command to remove the old, unwanted shortcuts and these "dead" shortcuts are present nonetheless, despite whatever changes I make to the default_workspace.xml (it does add my "new" shortcuts, though).

Any way that this could be done during the actual custom ROM installation process? And where would I add it to (default_workspace.xml, Android Manifest.xml, framework-res.apk, boot.img...