This story has to do everything with installing Android OS on a computer and we aren’t talking about Chromebook? Android is on smartphones, smartwatches, TV, and Cars and now it can be installed on your computer. Curious? In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to install Android on PC and the required files in the process.
Also read: 9 Best Android OS for PC Gaming, Surfing and Android Apps
A few years ago, we had a dual-core processor computer which was a nightmare (things changed now because we shifted to a more powerful machine) even at that time it supported Windows 10 (preview version), but as you know it didn’t go too smooth, and that’s the time I thought to install Android on my computer and even found the Android-x86 project website.
I wondered how to install Android on my computer! Is it even possible?
But I hesitated because I never tapped into anything new before. I wasn’t sure if that was a possibility, asked one of my Facebook friends if there is any way to install android on my computer and even send him the android-x86 website link. He apparently said in a sarcastic manner “the only way you could experience android is to buy an android phone” Sure that’s something I didn’t want to hear and felt it’s not true. Later I found that it’s possible to install android on a computer, all I need android x86 download image,s and create a bootable USB as we do with Windows, and yeah, it worked. At that time the latest Android x86 port was based on Android KitKat (stammers….. I guess). Now you can install Android 10, a lot changed!
Android x86 project Team ported Android 9 for computer, make sure to check for more recent ports. At the time of writing the Android version. The Android x86 project is not specifically for x86/32-bit architecture, their primary goal is to build for 64-bit.
download an Android OS image on your computer
Choose an Android operating system, Grab an image file from the corresponding site, and juice it to any USB drive using Rufus (Creating a bootable USB that can boot and install Android OS).
You have these options to choose from.
- Androidx86; androidx86.org
- Phoenix OS; phoenixos.org
- Bliss OS; blissos.org
- OpenThos;
- FydeOS;
You might want to start with AOSP Android, (original Androidx86 builds) and then you can move to either Bliss OS or other options.
Step 1. Create bootable Android OS USB
First of all, you need a .iso image file of Android OS, an iso file is a compressed file that can be used to create a bootable media drive to boot that particular operating system. Please select one that it’s available for both 32-bit and 64-bit, to quickly check a computer’s architecture open C:/ and if there is a Programs files (x86) folder the computer is 64-bit, either an x64 or x64-x86 ISO is required.
Once you have the ISO file, use a tool like Rufus to copy the files to a USB drive. Don’t try settings other than defaults, otherwise things might go south. Simply click on Start and wait a couple of minutes.
Step 2. Boot and install Android from USB
Restart computer and keep the USB plugged-in and smash one of theese keys to choose boot device, “ESC, F9 key to select the USB drive to boot from it. Alternatively, you can go into BIOS settings to enable “boot from USB boot first.”
Step 3. Installing Android on PC Hard Drive
When you select the USB drive, you will find a few choices, select the first one, and hit the enter key. The OS will start loading, and within a few minutes, you will be able to use it.
The home-screen looks like this. It is easy to use for everyone, and you will get used to it in no time. It has a Windows-like taskbar and they actually act similarly to the way we use Windows. The start menu is consist of the Phoenix logo, clicking on it will show the start menu from where all the apps are displayed, and you can launch apps by clicking on them.
Despite it being an android operating system and unlike the split-screen (we found on real android phones) you can use more than two apps side by side like Windows. I have tested it on a touch laptop, and the experience was good enough to use this operating system in my free time to roam around android apps.
On Android and haven’t taken the use of SwiftKey, not on my watch. From now on you’ll experience android right on your computer. I tested it on various machines and all of them worked so great.
Phoenix OS is delivered as an operating system that you can use daily but you are going to get some blood pears and applications which you cannot remove on the Bright Side you can run multiple Android applications at the same time. The application might not work ok as they require hardware and software support that is only present on a real Android device. And you can install the majority of the Google Play Store applications.
On the first boot, Phoenix looks minimal and clicking the start icon shows apps and other settings in the Windows-7 start menu look-alike layout. The taskbar itself is inspired by Windows 10 and it does great work mimicking Windows 10 layout that feels so nice to use.
Why should you not Dual-Boot?
I still think dual booting is a bad idea for your current operating system, I myself wiped out the Windows 10 boot information when installing it on a hard disk. SO it requires more knowledge about things such as the Grub2 bootloader and how you can enter your current operating system information so that the next time you start your computer it will not act like there is an only a single operating system which is now the android. However, if you are interested in going solo with an android operating system you can go, while note one thinks that this kind of Android OS does not support USB drivers so any hardware that requires a driver will not work with it.
How to Install Android on your computer [summary]
Booting from a USB is the easy part. If you wish to stay with the Android operating system you may want to install it on your computer storage.
At a glance, you have 3 options.
- Installing on Hard-Disc ( or SDD).
- Emulating within your current OS.
Booting from a USB drive.
- This is the easiest approach to bringing android os to your computer. Just like Linux OS you can get the Image file (OS file, typically in ISO and IMG format) and burn it to USB using a tool like Rufus for Windows.
- From now on turn off your computer, press the action key while the splash screen to choose the boot device, and when that happens to choose the USB Flash media to boot from.
- If you choose running Remix OS, it will throw 2 options to load the Operating system, the guest mode is as it sounds; doesn’t save sessions, and the Resident mode will save installed apps, logged accounts, and settings.
Did you install Android on your PC?
The process is almost identical for Phoenix OS, Android-x86 builds. Installing Android OS on your hard drive comes with the risk to wipe out information about your current operating system from the bootloader. It means you won’t be able to boot your Windows OS. Remix OS and Phoenix OS provide installers using them GRUB2 can be installed making both your OS accessible.