Jide Technology’s Remix OS is an Android-based operating system that takes Google’s mobile OS and makes it feel more like a desktop OS. It ships on a handful of tablets, mini-desktops, and other devices, and earlier this year Jide released Remix OS for PC, allowing just about anyone to download and run the operating system on computers with Intel or AMD chips.

Don’t want to go through the hassle of switching operating systems on your PC just so you can run a few games? Now you can use Jide’s new Remix OS Player to run Android apps inside of Windows.

Mac support is coming soon.

remix-player_02

Remix OS Player is free an Android emulator that lets you run an Android environment inside of your current operating system. Just download and run an .exe file to get started.

The Remix OS Player has all the same features you get with Remix OS: it’s a fully functional, customized version of Google Android. The only difference is that it runs as a desktop app, which means you can interact with the Android environment without rebooting your computer.

Any Android apps that work with Remix OS for PC should also work in the Remix OS Player. That means you can play games, use mobile chat apps, or even web browsers, office software, or other apps… although I’m not sure if there’s any real advantage to running the mobile versions of those apps when you can also just fire up their desktop equivalents.

I suspect the primary appeal of Remix OS Player will be the ability to download and play Android games from the Play Store.

Speaking of the Play Store, it’s loaded in the Remix OS Player, but it’s not enabled by default. Before you can access Google’s store for games, apps, and media, you’ll need to run the Play Activator app.

remix-os-player-gplay

I took a pre-release version of the Remix OS Player for a spin, and found it easy to set up: just download and unzip a 1.9GB file and then click the Remix OS Player icon to get started.

But the Android emulator was kind of sluggish once it was up and running on my Windows 10 laptop with a Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor, and I had a hard time getting some of the apps and games I installed to run at all (Evoland and Minion Rush both crashed every time I tried to run them).

remix-os-player_02Your results may vary, and there are advanced options that allow you to adjust the virtual screen resolution and choose how much RAM to make available to the Remix OS Player (between 1GB and 3GB).

Jide isn’t the first company to release an emulator that allows you to play Android games and run other apps on a PC. BlueStacks has been offering similar software for years.

Other options include Genymotion, Andy, and AMIDuOS.

But unlike some other options, Remix OS includes multi-window support and other tweaks to make the software feel more like a desktop OS, including a taskbar and Start Menu-like app launcher.

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7 replies on “Run Android apps in Windows with Jide’s Remix OS Player”

  1. emulator: ERROR: x86_64 emulation currently requires hardware acceleration!
    Please ensure Intel HAXM is properly installed and usable.
    CPU acceleration status: Remix OS Player requires an Intel processor with VT-x and NX support. Your CPU: ‘AuthenticAMD’

    They can go and….nevermind. Who cares. Bluestacks works just fine, and there is also Droid4X as a second option.

  2. Slow to install and load on Windows 10 with an Atom quad core, 4gb RAM and a 128gb SSD. There are even some entertaining apology messages during the install, But once it’s up and running, Angry Birds works just fine, Requires a Google account for most other apps to run, and a few are a little buggy, But I really like the concept of Remix OS player. Great idea!

  3. It’s a shame that the vast majority of these options are Windows-only. Android, like many people like to state, runs on Linux (modified kernel). Yet, few if any viable solutions for Linux.

    1. It is indeed a little strange, especially considering that virtualization and container concepts are flourishing on penguin OS.

    2. I had a chromebook flip for a few days and android was working fine on it (except that I missed one or two features but that s a young and not yet released product). With crouton you have full linux (ubuntu) on chromebook. And I ve read you can run kvm, hence windows, fine under crouton.

  4. I keep hoping these emulators will get better to the point that almost every app works and they all seem responsive. With a 1.9 GB download for the experience you describe I think I would rather run Android apps within the Chrome browser.

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