The Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) is an optional feature that allows you to run Android apps on Windows PCs. Officially, it’s only available for Windows 11. But third-party developers have figured out how to install the Windows Subsystem for Android on Windows 10 as well.

Just keep in mind that these methods are not supported by Microsoft, take a fair amount of technical know-how, and may involve some risk. So I’m not sure if I’d recommend installing WSA on a Windows 10 PC… but it’s nice to know it’s possible.

WSAPatch (GitHub)

There are at least two methods for installing WSA on Windows 10. One is by using an open source tool called WSAPatch. According to a description on the GitHub project page, it’s “a patch for WSA to enable” it to run on Windows 10.

In a nutshell, WSAPatch involves installing running Windows 10 22H2 or later, enabling the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), grabbing a Windows 11 DLL file, downloading and modifying the WSA installer, and then building (or downloading) and applying a patch to WSA before running it.

Another method, described by xda-developers forum member ga11ga11, also requires enabling WSL, but this time you grab a pre-rooted version of WSA from WSABuilds that has the Amazon Appstore removed and Google Play Store enabled, install specific components, extract a folder, and run a few commands to install and enable WSA.

Of course, there are other ways to run Android apps on a Windows PC. Third-party tools like Bluestacks and Genymotion have been around for years. And unlike WSA, they’re officially supported on Windows 10. But they also tend to be more resource-intensive solutions with clunky user interfaces that aren’t tightly integrated into the operating system, which makes it feel more like you’re launching Android in a virtual machine than running Android apps in your Windows environment.

via u/NXGZ

 

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5 replies on “Hackers port the Windows Subsystem for Android to Windows 10”

  1. Question: I guess this does not change the processor requirement (the 13th generation Intel)?

  2. Waydroid is the common and fast way to use android on a computer these days

    1. Oh wow, Waydroid is the perfect way to run Android apps on Windows, goodbye BlueStacks!

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