The topic is pretty much what i do want to know. I have to remove a XM-L from a dropin that's glued. Dental wire? Freezing below 30 degrees celsius and prying with a tiny screwdriver?
Or dropping it a few times to the floor and doing the face: Opps, did i do that?
There must be an easy way but i'm unaware of any... any help is appreciated.
Thermal epoxy or thermal glue? If it's glue, it's a lot easier. My method is to unsolder the leads to the led, then use a pair of needlenose pliars inserted in the two pcb notchs to gently twist the emitter back and forth. Haven't damaged one yet. It also helps to use a small razor to remove as much of the exposed glue as possible.
As far as epoxy goes, the only luck I've had is by removing the driver, and carefully applying heat from a propane torch to the pill. I've only had to do one that was epoxied, but this worked for me.
Thanks! Its the thermal goop based glue not epoxied. Might as well freeze it a bit to make it more britlle or not?
Freezing should help. But if that doesn't do the trick, perhaps you can find hardheaded politician to practice throwing 
Freezing it then giving the pill a sharp knock can work. Wear gloves - frostbite is not a lot of fun.
Then you can usually lever the LED off (gently).
Failing that, most epoxies will die at elevated temperatures - if you are lucky that will be before the LED does. Strong alkalis will decompose most glues quickly, but they will also eat aluminium which is not a good thing. A weaker alkali (ammonia solution comes to mind - just do it outdoors as it smells like essence of cat bladder) may help - just be careful where you put it.
And how are people getting the black covers off their manafont XMLs?
Seriously? ...git some tweezers, exacto knife, needle, something very thin to carefully lift at one edge. It simply pulls off, then.
Nope......... can't get anything under it.
Can you give it a twist through the notches on the side of the pill. Find some curved pliers, or pliers you dont mind destroying. apply torque to the pill. Except you must be Ready for it to slip, and not take the dome off while your at it.
Not the most neat solution but I use a medium sized (something that can enter the gap between the star and the pill but nothing much smaller than this) flat face screwdriver. I inset it and press firmly to assure it sits really flat on the pill. I try to turn it. The lateral force of the turn movement seems to be higher than what you can apply without slipping the driver and rip the PCB off. So the star usually pops off after a few balanced try but if you don't press well on the driver one edge can rise and damage the side of the star easily. Luckily enough I haven't damaged any star I changed to the point of a real damage but just had some little scars on the edges at those times I couldn't keep the screwdriver that flat.
Thanks to all. I'll give it a shot with angled needle nose pliers and by twisting it.
Check to see if they have mis-aligned it. If they have any of the star over the wire holes it would be easy just to poke something through to push it off.