Windroy Android Emulator for Windows

[Greg Jensen]

I've recently started using a quick/easy Android emulator for Windows.  

http://www.socketeq.com/

or 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/Miscellaneous/WindowsAndroid.shtml

It installs easily starts and runs very quickly.  Unfortunately it does not expose a WiFi connection so the AI Companion will not work. However it is very simple to drag APKs into the correct folder 

C:\SocketeQ\windowsandroid_root\data\app

once the app is installed. Any APK stored in that folder will be available. In the screenshot below Turn and Windvector are my apps. Also it does connect to the internet through your host so you can get to the internet through your apps.

Another caveat is that it's very basic and seems to have only a landscape mode tablet type screen available.  Portrait apps will show sideways on your monitor. But it is fast and seamlessly supports the mouse and keyboard.

[Enis]

Greg... Try the free emulators from Genymotion (http://www.genymotion.com).  The work the same way in terms of dragging and dropping APKs, but also work with AI in USB mode and have many different free devices to choose from.

[Greg Jensen]

Yes there are other emulators. Genymotion/bluestacks and I played for a few days with the android-x86 project.  Both Genymotion and the x86 project require a virtual machine to run in. ie. a 3rd party app to emulate a unix type OS within Windows.  Although Genymotion installs with virtualbox  this make the whole thing way more cumbersome to setup and use. I could not get WiFi supported or Internet access through the x86 project emulators.

WindowsAndroid/Windroy just runs like a Windows application.  Almost - it does fire up a command line window but the user doesn't have to deal with it. Bluestacks has it's own limitations and is generally aimed at providing a way to play certain Android games on a PC.   

[Enis]

Greg... I can tell you that I set up Genymotion in about 5 minutes, and there's no fuss and muss with the Oracle virtualbox.  Once Virtualbox is set up, you don't touch it again, regardless of how many times you update the genymotion soiftware.