How to Run Android Apps on Windows 11: Official and APK Methods

Out of the box, your Windows 11 PC doesn’t have the ability to install Android apps and games. And while Microsoft once offered the Windows Subsystem for Android as an official way to run Android apps, that’s no longer the case today. The company retired the feature in March 2024, with guaranteed support only for existing users over the next year.

With that in mind, here’s how to run Android apps on a Windows PC — we’ll cover the official and unofficial options.

How to officially install Android apps on Windows 11

If you want to install Android apps on your Windows PC just for gaming, there is good news. You can easily install Google’s official Play Games Beta and get access to dozens of the most popular games without the risk of installing third-party software.

However, there is no official way from either Google or Microsoft to run common Android apps on Windows. You’ll need to install an emulator instead, which I’ll detail in the unofficial methods section below.

Install Play Games beta for Windows PC

First, you will need to enable virtualization which is a CPU feature that helps run secondary operating systems such as Android in our case. Newer computers will require you to toggle a switch in the BIOS/UEFI settings, usually called Intel VT-X or AMD-V, depending on the brand of CPU in your system. Then you also need to enable it within Windows 11.

1. Open it Control panelgo to Programs section
2. Click Turn Windows features on or off.
3. Enable Virtual machine platform and Windows Hypervisor platform making sure the boxes next to them are checked
4. Click Alright.

Restart the system. Then download Play Games Beta from Google’s official website and open the installer. Give it a few minutes to download the 800MB or so it needs and finish the installation.

The process for officially installing Android games is as easy as using the Play Store on your smartphone – you’ll just need a Google account to get started. If you use your primary account, all of your existing in-app purchases and game progress will automatically carry over.

1. Click on the “Register” button. This will open a new browser tab. Select your Google Account if you’re already signed in or enter your account credentials.
2. Go to the Play Games window and accept the terms and privacy agreement.
3. After signing in, the app will bring you to a home page that resembles the Play Store on a tablet. You’ll see that only Google-approved games are available to install, but that’s still a pretty long list and includes most of the popular titles.
4. Simply select the game and click “Install”. Once downloaded, you can open the game and use your mouse and keyboard to interact with it.
5. Most games open in full screen. Simply press Shift+Tab to open the control layer where you can exit the game or rebind the controls.

Once again, you can only install Android apps and games that are visible in the Play Games beta storefront. Google doesn’t allow you to install APK files or even regular Android apps. For that we will have to turn to unofficial means.

If you need to install Android apps and not just games, the above official method will not work for you. So we’ll have to turn our attention to third-party Android emulators instead. The virtualization requirements above apply here as well, so follow those steps before proceeding with the rest of this guide.

We have a dedicated post covering the best Android emulators, but the bottom line is that most people will have BlueStacks or GameLoop. Both contain a number of gaming-focused features, but don’t restrict you from installing regular Android apps. You also get full access to the Play Store, allowing you to download any app, which wasn’t possible with Windows 11’s now-defunct Android emulation feature.

As for apps and games not available on the Play Store, BlueStacks also supports sideloading via APK files. Simply download the app from a reputable source like APKMirror and double-click the icon. The emulator will create a shortcut on the home screen that should be visible the next time you launch it.

So what’s the downside? Since Android emulators are developed by third-party companies, you may have to deal with advertisements or other distractions. BlueStacks claims it doesn’t collect or sell your data, to its credit, and hasn’t suffered any major security breaches in the ten years since it launched.