Run Android Apps on Your Windows PCAndroids application ecosystem has proven to be versatile and developer friendly after a bit of a slow start. You are free to develop an app for Android and publish it to the Play Store with just a few basic restrictions. This has led to a plethora of really cool Android apps, some of which arent available on i. OS or other platforms. Running Android apps usually requires an Android smartphone or tablet obviously OS and want to try Android without actually getting an Android device Fortunately, with a little leg work, you can run Android apps on a regular old Windows PC. There are a few different ways to go about it, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Android Studio. One popular way to get Android apps running on a PC is to go through the Android emulator released by Google as part of the official Android Studio. The emulator can be used to create virtual devices running any version of Android you want with different resolutions and hardware configurations. C442' alt='Installing Apps On Android Wear For Ios' title='Installing Apps On Android Wear For Ios' />The first downside of this process is the somewhat complicated setup process. Youll need to grab the installer from Googles site and run through the setup process to download the platforms you want probably whatever the most recent version of Android happens to be at the time 7. H429iVyJKvVeNClQ0G5OdLskpjc=/fit-in/x/2017/02/10/4a84dba5-0e2f-49e1-adaf-df7982f4af15/complications-android-wear-2-0.jpg' alt='Installing Apps On Android Wear For Ios' title='Installing Apps On Android Wear For Ios' />Google has some pre configured emulation options available in the menu for NexusPixel devices, but you can set the parameters manually, too. Once youve booted your virtual device, youll need to get apps installed, but the emulator is the bone stock open source version of Android no Google apps included. Since theres no Play Store, you need to do some file management. Take the APK you want to install be it Googles app package or something else and drop the file into the tools folder in your SDK directory. Then use the command prompt while your AVD is running to enter in that directory adb install filename. The app should be added to the app list of your virtual device. The big upside here is that the emulator is unmodified Android right from the source. The way apps render in the emulator will be the same as they render on devices, and almost everything should run. Its great for testing app builds before loading them onto test devices. The biggest problem is that the emulator is sluggish enough that you wont want to make a habit of running apps in it. Games are really out of the question as well. Blue. Stacks App Player. If youre looking to get multiple apps and games up and running on your computer with the minimum of effort, Blue. Stacks is your friend. The Blue. Stacks App Player presents itself as just a way to get apps working, but it actually runs a full heavily modified version of Android behind the scenes. Free Vector Art Background Downloads Paint. The newest Huawei Watch runs Android Wear 2, which brings a material design refresh and a host of new features. Can it save the smart watch revolution, or is it just. You dont need an Android phone to run apps designed for the platform. With a few software downloads and a. Pixlr is a fun and free photo editor for quick fixes and amazing effects. If you dont like the default text messaging app on your Android device, its super easy to change There are lots of great alternatives out there, and thanks to. Not only that, but it has the Play Store built in, so you have instant access to all of your purchased content. It actually adds an entry to your Google Play device list, masquerading as an Android device. The Blue. Stacks client will load up in a desktop window with different app categories like games, social, and so on. Clicking on an app or searching does something unexpected it brings up the full Play Store client as rendered on tablets. You can actually navigate around in this interface just as you would on a real Android device, which makes it clear theres a lot more to Blue. Stacks than the App Player front end. In fact, you can install a third party launcher like Nova or Apex from the Play Store and set it as the default. The main screen in Blue. Stacks with the app categories is just a custom home screen, so replacing it makes Blue. Stacks feel almost like a regular Android device. Bluestacks playing Lumino City. Having full Play Store access means you wont be messing around with sideloading apps, and Blue. Stacks manages to run apps pretty well. Most games are playable, but keep in mind youll have trouble operating many of them with a mouse. If your PC has a touch screen, you can still use apps and games that rely on more than one touch input. Blue. Stacks can essentially make a Windows tablet PC into a part time Android tablet. Blue. Stacks calls the technology that makes this possible Layer. Cake because Android apps run in a layer on top of Windows. The only real issue with Blue. Stacks is that its not running a standard Android build. All the alterations the company made to get apps working on a PC can cause issues some apps fail to run or crash unexpectedly. This customized environment is also of little value as a development tool because theres no guarantee things will render the same on Blue. Stacks as they might on a real Android device without all the back end modifications. Its also a freemium service with a 2 pro subscription, or you can install a few sponsored apps. Android PC ports. If you dont mind a little extra hassle, you can have a more fluid Android app experience by installing a modified version of the OS on your PC. There are a few ports of Android that will run on desktop PCs, but not all systems will be able to run them properly. The two leading choices for a full Android installation on PC are the Android x. Project  and Remix OS pictured above, which is based on x. Theres also an app player version of Remix that runs within Windows, but Ive found it to be extremely temperamental. Neither one is in a perfect state, but Remix OS is a little more fleshed out. Remix requires at least 2. GB of RAM and a 2. GHz dual core processor, but practically youll need more than that for good performance. The UI is not stock Android its based on the x. That might actually be preferable, though. You could install either over top of Windows, but thats not the best idea. The smarter way would be to create a separate hard drive partition and install Android there. The Remix installer will help you do that. If you dont want to install Android on your PC, you can try running one of these operating systems in Virtual. Box, which should be a little faster than the official Android emulator. It probably still wont be good enough for games, but most apps should install and run correctly Blue. Stacks is faster at this. Theres no Google Play integration when you install Android ports, but sideloading Play Services is fairly simple with Remix. So whats the best way If you need to test something with the intention of putting it on other Android devices, the emulator is still the best way. This is best suited to developers as the configuration and management of apps is complicated. Its slow, but youll be able to see how things will work on the real deal. The Android PC ports are definitely fun to play with, and performance is solid when you get apps running, but they can be finicky. If youre interested in getting more than a handful of apps running on your PC so you can actually use and enjoy them, Blue. Stacks App Player is the best solution. Its fast, has Play Store access, and works on multitouch Windows devices. I think its still the best of the app players for Windows. If you actually want to use Android apps long term on your PC, you might want to consider installing Remix OS. Itll take time to get it working, but its a full Android based OS for your PC. Now read 2. 5 best Android tips to make your phone more useful. Check out our Extreme. Tech Explains series for more in depth coverage of todays hottest tech topics.