Google Android may be designed for smartphones and tablets, but for the past few years a team of developers has been porting the open source operating system to run on just about any computer with an Intel or AMD processor. Now they’re just about ready to launch a version of Android 4.4 KitKat for PCs with x86 processors.

You can download a release candidate from the Android-x86 project website.

android-x86 logo

Android-x86 4.4-RC1 is based on Google Android 4.4.2 KitKat, but it includes a number of additions to help it run on tablets, netbooks, and other devices with x86 chips.

Among other things, the update includes support for playing HD videos in apps thanks to improved ffmpeg integration, OpenGL ES hardware acceleration for Intel and AMD graphics processors (but not older Intel Atom chips with PowerVR graphics), and support for most hardware including WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, cameras, and multitouch input.

While Google and Intel work together to ensure that Android can run on devices with Intel’s Atom chips for phones and tablets, the Android-x86 team has been making good on its mission to let you run the open source operating system on traditional PCs for years.

For users, it also provides a way to get a little more life out of old computers by installing new software. Don’t need your Windows XP netbook anymore? Why not turn it into an Android machine for web browsing and casual gaming?

Update: MonsterCameron has taken Android-x86 for a spin on a netbook with an AMD C-50 processor. While it’s not incredibly stable and not all apps run perfectly, it does support HD video playback, WiFi, and more. You can find more details in the (lengthy) video below.

via /r/Android

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47 replies on “Android-x86 4.4 release candidate: Run KitKat on your PC”

  1. I’m using android on my Dell Optiplex 760 and I’m loving its speed. It supports most of my hardware if not all.

  2. Android running good on HP laptops and desktop.
    This is my screenshot from HP dc7900 CMT.

    ???

  3. I installed android 4.4 on my HP DV2500 laptop but without sound and also i’m unable to connect huwaei dongle with sim to browse net. somebody pls help to solve these problems.

  4. Has the problem with the Android apps been fixed? Last time I tried android x86 on an intel PC, NONE of the apps from the app market would run. I would love to know this info…

  5. There is network error when I dive in “Settings”. What can I do now?

  6. I’ve been running from 4.0 all the wqay to 4.,4.2 RC2, right now, Matteer fact i’m on it now Fox-Fi Over Wi-Fi, This is almost a fully completed OS running on X86 computers….Should give it another shot, My only problem is I WANT Pinch Zoom Controls on The TouchPad, If Thats the Biggest Problem……….

    Running a DELL 1750

  7. i use win32disimager to install on my pendrive. Everything worked great when i run it live but i cannot use my wifi dongle…..if anyone knows how to make wifi dongle working plz share

  8. Hey there! I just have few questions…
    Can it run .apk files?
    Does it have Playstore?

    Thanks much please answer A.S.A.P

  9. I installed it on my Acer 4310 laptop with Celeron processor, 1.5gb Ram as first and only os.it works fine but i have two problems, Frist Problem is not detecting Wifi device, and second is Not shutdown it self, everytime i have to hard shutdown. everyting else working superfine, i simply love it, now i hardly use my win7 laptop.

  10. Hi
    I installed Android on my PC. But the version appears “Rooted” as it does not have file manager etc. the PC gets internet through either LAN or USB-router. I am not sure how to access internet for Android.

    I welcome any suggestions on this. I did consider using a VM, but my hard disk is a paltry 160Gb and sparing 20-30 Gb is not possible.

    Your website is awesome, with nice graphics and readability all over. Keep up the good work and I welcome your new ideas. THANKS

  11. I am running it installed on my DELL MINI 9 laptop now. Runs fine. Detects wireless driver and most other drivers on my PC. Many of the apps were changing my rotation until I installed a rotation lock app. I have many apps installed such as Facebook and YouTube which play very well. I have an external webcam using as a camera. The sleep and power on still not working right. I have settings to “never sleep”. I cant get Streaming apps such as Live TV or Justin TV to work. For some reason I get the Unfortunately error when I try to run Live streams. Hope someone has a fix for that.

  12. I’m checking it out. I can’t get any audio files or video (including Youtube) to play unfortunately. The audio itself seems to work as it makes the beeps when I adjust volume.

  13. For those of you curious about scrolling. Control and + keys together will zoom in; Control and – keys will zoom out. Also try pressing control and scrolling on your mouse. May control zoom gesture like in windows.

  14. Hey I installed it on Acer aspire 4736 (2 gb ram) installation went through smoothly but it doesnt detect wifi or bluetooth hardware how to connect to internet using wifi …please help !

  15. I’m online with modem. when I install and operate this android with netbook, my modem was not detected. how to fix it?

  16. Have someone installed it on a asus eee pc 900? i need to know if everything works? (camera, wifi, microphone)

    1. i am trying it now , but stuck at boot up like previous installs , i used yumi to install iso onto thumb drive. i get a continued blinking along with detecting android -x86 followed by …….

  17. I wonder how it will do on a new BayTrail motherboard? That could be a very interesting pair. Android does not need a ton of ram and the Celeron CPU is a lot faster than any current ARM cpu. If combined with a multi touch pad and a 1080p monitor I wonder how the performance would be..

  18. This was easy to setup on an MSI U100 netbook. It booted quickly and runs very smoothly. I changed the launcher to Nova (more flexibility) and was easily able to hook this up to my existing Google account and use it like my tablet or phone. Unfortunately not completely ready for prime time for me. Biggest issue is that it doesn’t properly go to sleep or wakeup. One can power it off, but for it to be useful for most people sleep/wake needs to be seamless. To be fair, this maybe hardware specific…. I had similar issues when running Chromium OS on the same machine. What’s very interesting is that this is nearly perfect for this type of machine, and I hope that someone comes up with a fix for this as I would probably use this (e.g. as an appliance for Google Play Music and Internet radio)… the one thing that is a bit odd after using Android as a touch-based OS is using a mouse with it… I keep wanting to reach out and swipe and touch the screen.

  19. Love the idea. Too bad I don’t have any old netbooks laying around.
    Has anyone successfully sideloaded a Google apps package on Android x86?

    1. if you mean the play store and other google apps then he has already built them in the iso.

      1. really? Great! That makes it really easy to get Android running on a device with Play Store support already.

  20. I am running it as a live CD at this moment. Everything seems to work. The only issue is the screen resolution. It seems to be either 480 or 720. It would not display 1080P on my monitor.

    I have an extra SSD. Need to see how fast it runs off the SSD vs the live CD.

    So far I like it.

    I presently run Linux Mint. Android on a pc is a good alternative for folks with a pc that all they need is internet, email and apps.

    1. If you can find it’s loopback ip, you can connect it via ‘adb connect ip’ after enabling adb over network. If I’ve got what’s you mean…

  21. Skimming their site, it seems they rarely release any stable builds for each version of Android. Do the devs just drop development of the current version and start on the new one when it comes out?

    1. Why wouldn’t they? It’s not like there is a reason to use 4.3 JB when 4.4 KK is available, it’s literally the same OS with improvements. Why would they give long term support to an inferior version of the same product?

      1. Never releasing a stable build could make people think that there is, well, no stable build. Usually, when something is still in the testing builds, it means there are big enough issues where it should not be used by people not developing it or providing feedback. There is some valid reasons why OEMs don’t release Android phones with the latest OS.

      2. It’d be nice to use something that’s considered stable by the developers. If they don’t consider it stable then someone like me certainly shouldn’t be using.

        There’s a reason to use 4.3 stable over 4.4 RC1. Things like alpha, beta, release candidate, stable, etc. normally have significant meanings.

  22. If this works well on Bay Trail tablets, I’d be very interested in a dual boot.

    Thinkpad 8 + 128gb Storage + Windows 8.1 + Android 4.4?

    Yeah. Count me in.

  23. android-x86 is a beast on core cpu with 8gb ram + ssd. but, sadly, I haven’t figured out how to perform simple multitouch gestures like pinch to zoom

    1. wish they’d post official bootable SD-Card images for windoze tablets… atm I think this only works half-way decent on Core i3 or i5 computers such as the Surface Pro. It would also be nice if Intel backed the project then they get free development.

    2. Not the same thing but I believe at least some builds accept Ctrl-I/Ctrl-O for zoom in/out.

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