If you’re here, you love Android apps and you want to have them on your PC as well. Well, you’re in safe hands. I will guide you through every possible option to bring the Android magic to your laptop.
Just hang on for a while… patience is often rewarding!
Soon there will be PCs that will let you choose between Windows OS and Android OS. At least this is what sources at Intel are saying.
But even if this doesn’t happen anytime soon, you can still run Android apps on a computer even without installing a new OS. The trick will be revealed later. You will have to show some patience for rewards.
Run Android Apps on Mac #1 BlueStacks — Best for Running Apps. BlueStacks (also called BlueStacks App Player) is the oldest and the most popular way of running Android apps for Mac. You will be able to run almost any Android app using this simple emulator. It’s the best choice if you want to run WhatsApp on your Mac or access your Instagram. There is a range of different ways to run Android applications on your device. BlueStacks is a cloud-based virtual machine that optimizes Android apps for PCs. However, if you want to access the full version of Android without an emulator, then this is the right place, here. Aug 12, 2021 Emulators have been considered as an immediate solution to run Android apps on PC. With many reported issues, many users prefer casting out emulators from the list. If you are not fond of using emulators such as the BlueStacks emulator, you can follow through with a variety of different solutions, which are presented as follows.
1) Mobile emulators offer an excellent solution for anyone trying to run Android apps on PC. However, this isn’t the only way to test mobile apps.
2) You can boot your desktop with Android OS without having to install Virtualbox (explained later). In this case, you will install Android operating system alongside Windows. You will be asked to choose whether to start your computer with Windows or Android when booting up.
3) You can install Virtualbox and install Android OS inside it. This method is also explained in detail later in this article.
Continue reading for tutorials and reviews of free emulators.
1. Run Android apps on PC using an emulator
The easiest way to run mobile apps on a laptop these days is to use a free emulator like Bluestacks or Android official emulator.
Android official emulator comes with a full developer toolkit which means you will need to download Android SDK as well as a number of libraries to finally run the emulator.
Moreover, when you want to run the official emulator, you need to start development studio and from there you can start the emulator. That’s a lot of clicks and programs to run. Soap client.
Free emulators for your laptop
Bluestacks and other standalone emulators are good at what they do. They emulate an Android operating system inside your Windows or Apple.
There are no additional programs and you don’t really need to install anything like SDK. But still, if you are also interested in trying development, you’d be better using the official emulator.
For everyone else, a free standalone emulator is all you need. Some free standalone options are Bluestacks, Genymotion, Andy, and driod4x.
To make it easier for you to pick an emulator, I’ve reviewed all of them based on my personal experience. I’m going to review two top emulators since these are ones I personally use. If you need more, go ahead and dig reviews in forums for other emulators as well.
But I’m fairly sure you will pick one of these two.
My Short Review of Bluestacks Emulator:
Bluestacks is great. Setting it up is ridiculously easy. Installing new games is as simple as doing it on an actual Android phone.
Stability and performance
Although Bluestacks has focus on games mainly, it does fairly well with other apps. With some high-end games that aren’t listed on Bluestacks website, you might face performance issues.
Features and tools
Bluestacks is a great tool when it comes to basic features. It lets you sideload apps and sync app data with mobile. Unfortunately, these are the only two features that you get with this program.
But don’t be disappointed, the next emulator offers better features.
My Review of Andy Emulator
Where Bluestacks lacks, Andy comes in as a free option. It’s a basic emulator with plenty of extra features to keep you interested.
Stability and performance
Andy is actually better compared to Bluestacks when it comes to stability and performance. It plays apps much better compared to Bluestacks. In fact, Andy can play some of the games better than latest smartphones. It’s a clear winner when it comes to performance.
Features and tools
With Andy, you get almost same features as your phone. So expect to have notifications, widgets, and other standard Android features such as sideloading.
You can even install third-party launcher apps when emulating Android using Andy. This emulator is definitely the perfect option for those looking to try something better than Bluestacks.
2. Install Android-x86 on your PC
If you want a more dedicated Android operating system environment than what you get with an emulator, then you need to go this route. Install mobile OS on your PC so you can run your gamses.
Fortunately, it’s easy as you’ll learn later.
There is no official Android OS port for x86 computers but you can still make it work using a community-developed version. This community project has ported Android OS to x86 platform.
Is there an easy way to install this operating system?
Everyone can take this project and install it on their PCs just the way you install Windows.
To get this port for your desktop, find the official website for this project and download the operating system files from there.
A word of advice – don’t install Android OS on your work computer.
It’s a community project and it’s not stable. Adobe cc 2020 patcher. Install it on a PC that no one uses anymore. This OS can run even on outdated hardware.
For more information how to install Android 86x go here.
3. Install Android OS inside a Virtualbox
If you don’t want to dual boot your machine with Android 86 and Bluestacks isn’t your thing, you’re left with the last option to play your favorite apps on your desktop – that is to run the mobile operating system inside VirualBox.
VirtualBox let you emulate an operating system of your choice within Windows environment.
As I promised earlier, I won’t leave you alone on this treacherous path. Follow instructions below to run Android OS on Virtualbox.
Run Apk On Mac Without Emulator Mac
- Download Virtualbox from the official website.
- Once downloaded, double-click the installer file.
- Follow on-screen instructions to complete installation of Virtualbox.
- Now run the program by double-clicking its icon on your desktop.
Now you need to figure out a way to install Android OS in Virtualbox so that you can play all those crazy games and use your favorite Android apps on PC.
Follow instructions below to create an Android virtual environment.
- Click the NEW button on the left top.
- Provide details for your new OS.
- The wizard will ask for virtual Android-86 image. You can download one here.
- On the next screen, you will need to create partitions for your new operating system.
- After creating partitions, select one of them as primary and make it bootable.
- Now exit partitioning utility and reboot your virtual machine.
- Now you should be able to boot up Android in your virtual machine like any other OS.
When you are able to run mobile apps on PC, you can play your favorite games on a bigger screen. Imagine playing Traffic Rider on PC.
You will find a number of other console-quality games in Play market that are great fun to play on a bigger screen.
More from my site
There could be several reasons why you might want to run Android on PC without emulator. It could be that you own an iOS device and still want to enjoy the ocean of apps that Android smartphones bring to the table. Or, maybe you are just a technology enthusiast like us who wants to try something fun. Also, you might want to enjoy Android games on a bigger screen.
Whatever might be the reason, you might resort to an Android emulator for PC which is not a bad choice. But, how about we told you that you can install Android on PC without a dedicated emulator?
Yeah! That’s a possibility and in this blog, we’ll tell you how you can do that.
So, if you are all set to run Android on your Windows or Mac PC without an Android emulator for Windows or Mac then read on. Here we have listed 2 ways you can effectively run Android on PC :
- Install Android On PC Using Phoenix OS
- Install Android On PC Using Remix OS
Install Android On PC Using Phoenix OS
Phoenix OS is an operating system which is based on Android Nougat (Android 7) and can run on both Mac and Windows laptops and computers. If you install Phoenix OS on a hard drive, every time you will start your PC, you will be given an option to boot into Phoenix OS. Apart from installing Phoenix OS on hard drive, you can also choose to save it on a USB flash drive so that you can use it on any PC.
Phoenix OS is installed on Windows and Mac differently. To install the operating system on Windows, users can download EXE file whereas Mac users will first have to download an ISO file and then burn it to a flash drive to launch the installer. As a Mac user you will also have to make changes to System’s BIOS settings.
Steps To Install Android on Windows Using Phoenix OS
1. Download the Phoenix OS installer
2. Once you open the installer, click on Install
3. Select hard drive where you want to install the OS and then click on Next
4. Now, you will be asked to choose the amount of space you want to keep on your hard drive for the Phoenix OS
5. Once you have chosen the space, click on Install
After the OS is installed, you might receive a notification that states that you must disable secure boot. Depending on your system you can visit the Microsoft support website and check how to disable secure boot.
Also Read: How To Install Windows 10 From USB Drive
Install Android On PC Using Remix OS
Remix OS is an operating system that runs on Android Marshmallow (Android 6) and has the capability of running Android on Windows or Mac PC.
Mac Emulator Free Download
Note: it is recommended that you install Remix OS on an older machine as it is not devoid of issues and is constantly updated for stability.
Also Read: How To Install Windows 10 on Mac Spectra precision focus 30 user manual.
Steps To Install Android on Windows Using Phoenix OS
1. Download installation package on Remix OS homepage
2. Now, depending on your system configuration select download for 32- or 64-bit version
3. With package installer you will get an EXE file and an image file. After you have clicked on the EXE file, you will be required to mount the image file
4. Next, you will be given a choice to either install the Remix OS on a hard disk or flash drive. If you have chosen a hard disk, you will be able to run Remix OS on the same system.
Run Apk On Mac Without Emulator Free
5. After the installation accomplishes, you will be required to reboot the system. Restart the system and choose whether to start Remix or Windows
In The End
Run Apk On Iphone
Even though there are several Android emulators that can help you replicate Android on PC, the above two options can prove to be a boon, if you wish to run Android as your second operating system.
Liked the blog? Show us some love by dropping in your suggestions in the comments section below. And for more such fun-filled tech related content, keep reading Tweak Library.