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Old January 2nd 18, 05:20 AM posted to alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.comp.freeware
Joe Scotch
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Posts: 108
Default What free Android emulator do YOU use on Windows for running F-Droid APKs?

/nIn news
Seems to me anyone who runs Windows who has an Android smart phone "might"
want to know how to run those apps on Windows - just because they may also
have an app they like that is only on Android.


Maybe for some Android games. All the apps on my Android phone either
have a far more robust counterpart on my desktop PC under Windows 7 or
the Android apps are not applicable for use on my desktop PC.


Thank you for your detailed post which adds to our group tribal knowledge.

It's a good question to ask if there is major value in any Android app that
isn't yet on a single app on Windows.

Clearly the New Pipe app is one of those major apps, since many people
search and watch YouTube without paying the $10 per month (or whatever the
current subscription cost is) for YouTube Red.

- A compass app makes no sense on a desktop PC that never moves atop a
desk that doesn't move in a house that doesn't move.


This is true, as are many of the very nice mapping apps on Android like
OSMAnd~ or MapFactor Navigator, although some of them (particularly the
topographic mapping apps) might be useful on Windows ... although I do very
well with Caltopo, which I highly recommend for Windows backcountry
mapping. https://caltopo.com/map.html

- An app to detail the cellular signal and tower is not applicable on a
desktop PC without cellular components.


This is a good point, so, I agree in that I don't think the cellular wi-fi
signal such as that which we get out of the Android, such as Network Cell
Info Lite, or Netmonitor, or GSM Signal Monitoring, or MIT Cell Tracker, or
Cell Spy Catcher, etc.

- Although I could use wifi to connect a desktop PC to the wifi
router/cable modem, I prefer wired Ethernet connections for security
and simplicity and highest bandwidth, so I don't need an Android app
emulated on my PC telling me the wifi details. Some users do use wifi
between their desktop PCs and their wifi router but there are are
Windows programs for that rather than using an Android emulator to run
an Android app.


The main Windows program for that, I think, is inSSIDer, but the Android
apps do a nice job also, such as Fritz! WLAN (my favorite).

- There are Android apps for MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, and
Outlook. I prefer the far more robust desktop versions of those
programs. If I wanted free equivalents, I'd use LibreOffice for the
office suite, emClient for e-mail/calendar/tasks/contacts (I trialed
Thunderbird for 6 months but discarded it), and OneNote (which is free
to everyone under every supported OS, including Android and Windows).
- My desktop PC is not going with me on drives so none of the navigation
apps are applicable on it: Google Maps, Here WeGo, Waze, Gas Guru,
ParKING. I don't need Android nav apps on my desktop PC where I can
use a web browser to access the more robust web interface to those
services.


I agree with you that almost any "editor" on Android would be best using
the Windows version anyway.

- I don't need any of the Android apps for shopping (Walmart, Target,
Home Depot, Menards, Cub, eBay, Amazon, Newegg) since using the web
browser on a desktop PC gives me all the functions of their web sites
instead of some limited subset of features through their Android apps.


This is also true, where the desktop browser suffices for most stores.

- While the Adobe Reader app is on my phone, I wouldn't bother using
an Android emulator to run that on my desktop PC since there is a
desktop PC version of that program. In addition, I use PDF-Xchange
Editor on my desktop PC.


Yup. The PDF stuff is best on a desktop.

- I don't need a Speedtest app on my desktop PC where the web browser is
a better interface to their site.


Yup. Speedtest is easily done on a desktop.

Otherwise, I find
Android apps to be poor cousins of far more robust software I can use on
the desktop PC under Windows.


You make a good case that it's the rare Android app that does something
"better" than a Windows equivalent.

I think New Pipe is the only one I can think of although I think some of
the sand timers are pretty good on Android compared to Windows
counterparts.

I think the Android app drawer apps don't have a viable Windows
counterpart, but I can't imagine how they would work on Windows anyway.

The SMS and visual voicemail interfaces on Android might be nice on Windows
though, don't you think?

Sorry, I don't waste my time on inane games designed to addict boobs
with endorphin stimulation, like Candy Crush.


Every day I try to solve a dozen technical problems.
Who needs games. Not me either.
I don't even do crossword puzzles.
Just fixing my car is a crossword puzzle alone.

Personally I cannot see
the draw to those stupid games; however, I also find slot machines at
the casinos and the whole environ there to be visually and audibly
irritating, not pleasure stimulating. Instead of luring me in, they
make me want to get out.


When I see a secretary (admin) playing solitaire, it makes me wonder whose
life can be so boring that they play games with themselves?

I see no point in installing an Android emulator to run [more slowly
than on native hardware] an Android app (NewPipe) to supplant using a
web browser on my desktop PC to use YouTube.


The main draw of New Pipe is the lack of in-video ads, but the other draw
is the lack of needing to log in, and the next main draw is the ability to
download and extract, and a further draw is the ability to play on any
player, where that player would have additional features.

All this can be done on Windows - but with separate tools and actions.

So the main draw of New Pipe is an all-in-one GUI that does what YouTube
Red offers, for $10/month or whatever it costs.

Maybe there are Android
apps for which there is no Windows counterpart to run on a desktop PC
but I haven't run across any of those that interest me.


Do you use K9 Mail? Lots of people on Android do.
How about Snapseed or Deep Art Effects?

I find the photo-manipulation software on Android incredibly easy to use
compared to, say, The GIMP or Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, etc.

If I'm using a
desktop PC, I want more robust features and functionality than found in
Android apps, or use Windows software designed for that OS rather than
trying to intercede an emulator for lesser functionality in an app coded
for a different OS.


I think the WiFi debugging and photo manipulation freeware on Android are
quite useful where it would be nice to find similar counterparts on Windows
that are better than Irfanview, Paint.NET, ImageMagick, Pinta, Sketcher,
etc.

Just what do you get in the NewPipe app for Android that isn't usable
through a richer desktop web browser running on a desktop PC to use the
Youtube site?


I think we can surmise that New Pipe is worth about $10/month to many
people since it's essentially what YouTube Red is (or thereabouts).

In my case, as I said in the OP, the only Android app I care to run on
Windows is New Pipe because it has functionality that isn't known to be
available on Windows in a single executable.

https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.schabi.newpipe


Bluestacks is one choice already mentioned by me in my prior reply
(snipped in the quoted content in your reply to my reply).


I'm currently testing the Android ISO inside of a virtual machine.
That seems to be the most direct method - although I've been failing but
probably only because I didn't follow (or create) a tutorial yet.

I'm sure I'll get it running though as there is no technical reason Android
shouldn't run inside of Windows.

Another that comes to mind is the Android SDK that includes an emulator.
It's part of Android Studio used by developers to use their Windows
hosts to do Android programming plus it allows testing under different
Android scenarios. Since you aren't doing programming but just want to
run an Android app, it's likely an emulator bundled in a programming IDE
is overkill for your needs so I didn't suggest it before. See
https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html.


Yup. That was one of the suggestions I found when I searched.
My plan is simple (and always is simple).
1. I'll try VirtualBox with an Android ISO
2. If that fails, I'll try Nox (which was often recommended)
3. If that fails, I'll try another one on the list.


Another is to use an image of the Android OS ran as a guest OS inside of
a virtual machine. Fox already mentioned that solution.


Yes. What I like about this solution is that I already run a bevy of
operating systems inside of the virtual machine so this would be just one
more.

I like the simplicity and directness of this solution.
KISS is good.

Now it's up to *YOU* to decide which environ under which to run an
Android app that really has no use on a desktop PC. There is better
software for PCs designed to run natively on that hardware+OS platform
than to emulate Android apps on an alien platform. For your example of
NewPipe, I don't see it is better to emulate it on a PC versus software
meant to run under an OS on the PC.


You bring up a good point that the software we run on Android "mostly"
already exists (in better form) on Windows.

This is a long post so I'll post separately the list of Android APKs I have
stored on my phone (they're automatically created and stored and archived
to Windows) where I think mainly the photo manipulators and calculators and
sand timers and some of the wifi debuggers and police scanners may be
better than those on Windows (along with New Pipe) - but not much else
offhand.
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