30/05/13

How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

May 7, 2013 02:54 PM EDT by Avram Piltch, LAPTOP Online Editorial Director
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If you want to run an Android emulator in Windows, you have a few choices. You can configure the incredibly slow and difficult-to-use Android SDK. Or you could try the BlueStacks emulator, which is incompatible with many important apps and doesnt provide an
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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

Android interface. But your best bet is create your own Android emulator that runs in a Window. By creating a virtual machine that runs Android x86, a version of Googles OS for computers with Intel/AMD processors, you can have the full Android experience in a window, complete with a desktop, navigation buttons and access to the Google Play store. To create your own Android emulator that runs under Windows: 1. Download and install VirtualBox. 2. Download the latest version of Android x86 from android-x86.org. You will need the live and installation iso. As of publish date, the latest available version was android-x86-4.2-20130228.iso. 3. Launch VirtualBox. 4. Click New. A dialog box appears with fields for the name and type of operating system.

5. Enter Android x86 for name then select Linux and Other Linux under Type and Version and click Next.

6. Select at least 1024MB of RAM and click Next when prompted for memory size. If you have 8GB of RAM or more in your computer, select 2048MB for the virtual machine.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

7. Select Create a virtual hard drive and click Create when prompted to choose a drive.

8. Select VDI then click Next when prompted to choose a hard drive type.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

9. Select Dynamically allocated or Fixed Size then click Next when asked what type of drive you want to use. A fixed size virtual hard drive will be a little faster, but will immediately eat up a certain amount of storage space on your real-life storage drive. A dynamically allocated drive file will only use as much space as it needs and grow up to the amount you set. So, if you have a dynamically allocated 8GB drive but only use 2GB, the file will only take up 2GB of your hard drive.

10. Select 8GB and click Create when prompted for storage size. You can choose a greater drive size if you plan to install a ton of apps, but otherwise, 8GB should be more than enough for your emulator. An icon for Android x86 appears in VirutalBoxs left window pane.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

11. Right click Android x86 and select Settings .

12. Set the video memory to at least 64MB under the Display submenu.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

13. Select the Optical drive under the storage submenu.

14. Click the optical drive icon under attributes and select Choose a CD/DVD disk file.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

15. Select the Android x86 ISO file you downloaded earlier then Click Ok. 16. Click Start with Android x86 selected. The virtual box will boot off the ISO file and present an install menu.

17. Select Installation from the menu.

18. Select Create/Modify Partitions and Click Ok. A partition menu appears.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

19. Select New then Primary to create a single, primary partition on your virtual hard drive. Click Enter to configure the partition to use all available space on the virtual hard drive.

20. Select Bootable then Write and type yes to confirm. Then select Quit to return to the installation program.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

21. Click Ok to install onto the partition you just created.

22. Choose ext3 when prompted for a fileystem format. Click Yes to confirm. The system will now copy some files.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

23. Click Yes when asked if you want to install GRUB.

24. Click Yes when asked if you want to install /system as read-write. This will allow you to make some hacks if you choose to in the future. The system will now copy a few files.

25. Select Devices -> CD/DVD Devices -> Remove disk from virtual drive from VirtualBoxs top menu bar then click Force Unmount from the dialog box.

26. Select Reboot and click Ok. The system will boot into Android and after offering you the chance to boot to Debug or regular mode.
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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

27. Step your way through Android setup as you would on any phone or tablet, entering your Google account info and changing any settings you like. Dont configure Wi-Fi because VirtualBox already gets its Internet connection from your PC. After hitting the Start button on the welcome screen, there may be a minute or two delay.

28. Select Disable Mouse Integration from the VirtualBox Machine menu to make sure your mouse pointer stays synced with your movements. Use the right CTRL key to move your mouse pointer out of the VirtualBox window. Hitting Right CTRL + C will allow you to scale the Android window as you resize it.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

DOS Print driver for USB www.PrintFil.com Printfil capture PRN: or LPT1-9 forward it to USB or other printers

Waking the Android Emulator from sleep While Android x86 provides a true Android experience on your PC, it has a few quirks of its own. Perhaps the most obvious of these is that you cant wake it from sleep, simply by clicking on the emulator window. If the screen goes to sleep, you must hit the menu key on your keyboard, which is usually between the right Windows key and CTRL key on your keyboard, to wake it. Change the Android Emulators Screen resolution By default, the emulator window is set to 800 x 600 resolution. To boot into a higher resolution: 1. 2. 3. 4. Hit the a key when the GRUB menu appears at boot time. Type vga=ask at the end of the command that appears and hit Enter. Hit Enter again to see a list of video modes. Input the number of the mode you want (ex: 1152x864x24 is number 34B) and hit Enter.

In our experience, many of these video modes did not work and required us to reboot. However, you can feel free to experiment.

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

12 Worst Android Annoyances and How to Fix Them

Your Phone Slows Down Over Time
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When you brought your Android phone home from the store, it felt blazing fast. Now, it takes a long time just to return to the home screen from your email inbox. If the phone makes you wait five seconds to open the browser again, you may test out the Gorilla glass display with a hammer. Fortunately, you don't need to sit there and stare at the screen waiting for something to happen, nor do you need to replace your handset. By clearing your app cache, trying a new launcher and following a few other steps, you can bring your sluggish smartphone back to life.

Top 10 Tablets 10 Best Android Smartphones Top 12 Android Games Follow Avram Piltch on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook. Follow LAPTOPMAG on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook. Featured Sponsor

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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

Comments (10 Responses) Tags: Google Android, how-to, tips, laptops, laptops, notebooks, notebooks

10 Responses to How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

1. Anoyomus Says:
May 10th, 2013 at 2:58 am

In 20. step, i dont write yes. Help Me! 2. John Says:

May 10th, 2013 at 9:06 am

In our experience, many of these input modes did not work and required us to reboot. However, you can feel free to experiment. Which ones did you get to work? 3. Avram Piltch, LAPTOP Online Editorial Director Says:
May 10th, 2013 at 11:54 am

1152 x 864 seemed to work on my desktop as did 800 x 600 and I believe 1024 x 768. I think this may vary based on the physical hardware you have. 4. gen Says:
May 11th, 2013 at 5:35 pm

My sound gets lot of noise whenever 2ndary tasks are being perform. For example, if i have beyond pod playing that is fine. But if I am browsing the web while beyondpod is playing, sound gets lots of noise, and it wont go away until the end of the track. Looks like it has something to do when mouse integration. 5. nAREN Says:
May 22nd, 2013 at 1:57 am

i loaded android 2.3 version and it is working fine. but it does not show SD card . also i cannot download any applications because it tells me no SD card. I put SD card in my laptop but still it shows no SD card. Please help. Thanks. naren 6. Jim Eubanks Says:
May 23rd, 2013 at 4:08 pm

Seems to work fine on my Mac Mini running OS X 10.7, except that my mouse cursor is invisible over the Android screen. 7. michael thomas Says:
May 23rd, 2013 at 6:09 pm

I am trying to simulate youwave. I need to use an emulator to register different accounts. As of 5/23 the game has blocked
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How to Create an Android Emulator in Windows

youwave. Says you need a real device with 2.2 or higher. I think its is cause the build.prop says something like model:custom_19999 instead of a real device. What i need to do is use the emulator to look like a real device. I also need terminal to be able to do a busybox rm id on the sd card. I installed android terminal and busybox but busybox will not install correctly. Is there any other place where i might get help? So sum it up I need help with Making emulator look like a real device Be able to use terminal to do a busybox rm id to the sdcard. 8. reux Says:
May 24th, 2013 at 9:55 am

I got lost on Step 17. On step 16, I choose Installation and press Enter, the partition menu does not appear. What am I doing wrong? 9. RaikenJenova Says:
May 25th, 2013 at 4:23 am

Battery Low and the simulator turn itself off. How to fix it? Urgent. 10. Khat Says:
May 27th, 2013 at 8:48 pm

Speed is decent, but it wont install most apps, and others run incorrectly. Pixel Dungeon not compatible, Beastie Bay flips the display and it wont go back.

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