The Windows SubSystem for Android (WSA) module is undoubtedly the most anticipated new feature in the Windows 11 system, but from the initial test results, Microsoft still needs to further polish it. At the beginning, there were only 50 Amazon AppStores for users to choose from. This article introduces a simple technique that allows users to load Android applications on Windows 11 without joining the Beta channel.
Microsoft has officially confirmed that Windows Insider members in the US can download and install Android applications from the Amazon AppStore in the Windows 11 system. However, the WSA system of Windows 11 is launched in stages, so when the Store application is not updated, the Amazon AppStore may not be downloaded.
Eligible Intel , AMD and Qualcomm processor devices can install the WSA module. In addition, at least 8GB of RAM is required to load an Android APK on Windows 11. For the best experience on supported devices, 16GB of RAM is recommended.
Through the side-loading method, users can run Android applications without the help of Google Play Store. It also allows you to install and use mobile applications that you cannot find through app stores such as Amazon, Google, or Samsung.
The great thing about the Android subsystem for Windows is that it allows you to install almost all Android applications without modifying the device settings. This process is similar to sideloading an application on your phone , but you should be familiar with the command prompt.
In this guide, we will talk about the easiest way to sideload applications on Windows 11 using the command prompt. The method is easy to operate, let’s see how it works. Before starting, make sure you have downloaded the APKs of the application you want to install on the device. In this article, we choose to install the Brave browser downloaded from APK Mirror.
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- Download Windows Subsystem for Android from here
- Open PowerShell with administrator privileges
- Enter Add-AppxPackage (to get the path of WSA, please right-click it and select copy as path, then paste it into the above command)
- Go to the Google website and download Android SDK Platform-Tools.
- Unzip the Android SDK Platform-Tools to a folder of your choice.
- Open Windows Search, then enter “Windows Subsystem for Android”, click on it
- In Windows Subsystem for Android, scroll down and open Developer Mode
- Click File to get the IP address. This step is required when the IP address on the setting page is not available. (If you still can’t see the IP address, click Refresh and reopen the settings)
- Once completed, open a command prompt.
- Use the cd command to navigate to the Android SDK Platform-Tools folder. For example, if you extract the tools to the Downloads folder, you need to enter cdc:\users\username\downloads\platform-tools, and then press Enter.
- In the command prompt, enter the adb connect iPad dress you copied earlier.
- To install the APK, use adb install appname.apk. In this case, we use brave.apk (brave browser), so we enter the following command: adb install brave.apk
- If you follow the steps correctly, a success message will appear in the command prompt.