The arrival of Windows 11 on the market was a great joy for the androidphoric community due to its compatibility with Android Apps. Thus, a new operating system adds support to the ecosystem and joins others such as Chrome OS and Linux (with Waydroid).

However, Windows compatibility with Android still has a long way to go, with native support not expected in Windows 11 for another year (at least). Even so, you can already activate the installation of Android applications in Windows 11 and try some of them. Do you want to know how? We show it to you in this tutorial.

Everything you need to know about installing Android apps on Windows 11

Before moving on to the installation process, it is important that you know a few things about the compatibility of Windows 11 with Android apps. The first thing to remember is that this is a feature that is still under development, at least at the time of writing this article. Thus, it is quite likely that you will encounter errors when running certain apps or that you simply cannot install them.

The second thing is that not any version of Windows 11 allows you to install the Windows subsystem for Android, at least not officially. In fact, you are supposed to meet these requirements:

• You must be enrolled in the Windows 11 beta development channel .
• Your Windows 11 must be set to United States .
• You can only install apps published on the Amazon Appstore that are approved by Amazon and Microsoft.

As you can see there are quite a few limitations, but that’s the regular way.

How to run Android apps on any Windows 11 PC

As on many occasions, there are always other ways to achieve what you want and this time is no different. The method that we will teach you today will allow you to enjoy Android apps in Windows 11 without modifications and without so many restrictions, to the point that you will be able to:

• Install Android apps on any version of Windows 11 without being in the beta channel.
• Install apps on builds of Windows 11 that aren’t officially supported .
• Try the applications without being in the United States.
• Download and install Android apps via ADB without being limited to the Amazon store offer.

Download and install Windows Subsystem for Android on your computer

The first step in making your version of Windows 11 compatible with Android apps is to download and install Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) . This works very similar to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and is also available for download directly from the Microsoft Store.

Thus, you can download WSA by searching for it in the application store on your PC, but we still leave you with another alternative method:

1. Open StoreRG to generate the WSA download link.
2. In the first dropdown select “ProductID” .
3. Paste the WSA ID into the generator text box. It’s this one: 9P3395VX91NR .
4. In the second drop-down menu select “Slow” .
5. Press the confirmation button to generate the link.
6. In the list, look for the file with the largest size (over 1 GB) and with the extension *.msixbundle.
7. Download the file to your computer (supports x64 and ARM64 computers).

8. Open a Windows PowerShell terminal in administrator mode.
   • To do so, just right-click on “Start” and press “Windows PowerShell (Admin).
9. Run the following command :

 Add-AppxPackage -Path // Change  to the location of the installer.

10. If all goes well, the installation should complete and from then on you will see WSA in your start menu.

How to Download and Install Android Apps on Windows 11 Subsystem

Now that you’ve set up the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), it’s time to show you how to download and install Android apps on your computer . It’s a bit of a tedious process, but it is what it is if you don’t want to be restricted to what Amazon and Microsoft point out. This is what you should do:

1. Download the APK package of the application you want to install from some reliable alternative store, we recommend APKMirror or F-Droid.
2. Start WSA on your computer.
3. In the WSA configuration screen, enable the “Developer mode” option .
4. Open a new Windows PowerShell window in administrator mode.
5. Connect your computer’s Android instance to the rest of the system via ADB. Here are some things you should know:
   • If you don’t know how to configure ADB, go through our tutorial with all the methods to use ADB on any device.
   • You can connect via localhost using the following command:

 adb connect 127.0.0.1:58526

• • Or you can connect through an IP address using this other command:

 adb connect // The IP address can be found in the “IP address” section just below the option to enable WSA development mode.

6. Once ADB is connected to the WSA instance, you can install the APK package with this command:

 adb install // Change  to the address of the installer.

6. If you did everything right, WSA will install the application via ADB and create an access in the start menu of your Windows 11 computer.
7. Launch the installed app and start enjoying Android on your computer.

As we mentioned, it’s a bit of a long process, but not having restrictions with apps and your computer is a pretty low price to pay. Tell us in the comments how this tutorial went for you?

The post So you can install Android apps on Windows 11 without third-party apps first appeared on CuteRank.