You Can Run Android 4.0 In Its Entirety Right On Your PC

You Can Run Android 4.0 In Its Entirety Right On Your PC


Running certain Android apps on your desktop is nothing new with Bluestacks, but now you can get the whole dang OS running on your PC as a native application thanks to a little program called WindowsAndroid.

Developed by a startup in Bejing called SocketeQ, WindowsAndroid not only lets you mess with Android apps on your computer, but emulate an entire 4.0 ICS device on there, complete with all the settings and everything else. It’s available for download from SocketeQ’s site, if you’ll give them your email address and — as you should be able to guess — it runs on Windows Vista, 7, and 8 exclusively.

WindowsAndroid will also make good use of the computer it’s running on. It supports big resolutions, cranks up performance using your PC’s guts, and it can make use of your mouse and keyboard in addition to a touchscreen monitor if you have one. You can also side-load apps by dropping the APKs in the right folder. But for the moment, that’s the only reliable way to get fun stuff on it, because Google Play doesn’t recognise the hardware.

The project started as an experiment with Android 2.1 and 2.3, and it only just recently hopped up to 4.0. The team is currently working on Jelly Bean too, but there’s no telling when that might come. In the meantime, WindowsAndroid is a neat little application, if young and doubtlessly buggy. Surface Pro running Android, anyone? [Reddit via The Next Web]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.