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Windroy

Great emulator for running Android on a Windows machine

6.6

1577 Votes

  • Category Operating Systems
  • Program license Free
  • Version 4.0.3
  • Size 83.25 MB
  • Works under: Windows Vista
  • Program available in English
  • Program by Socketeq

Windroy is a native Android emulator for Windows.

Windroy seeks to provide native emulation of the Android operating system on the Windows operating system, as far back as Vista, and that makes it one of the more intriguing Android emus around. This program is rather ambitious in that it strives for full app emulation in a package that’s as convenient as any Windows program, and it combines some of the best features introduced by other popular emulators, such as Bluestacks and YouWave.

Despite this ambition, Windroy is amazingly stable, which has been a double-edge sword. The developers keep the release build safe, which helps to achieve that unparalleled stability but also ensures that Windroy tends to evolve at a slower rate than its competitors. It may never support the latest version of Android, and at the time of this review, only 4.04 was supported.

One issue with Windroy is that it doesn’t include Google Play or support for any other Android app store. More than that, it doesn’t include automatic installation of apps of any kind. That means that you have to find the app you want, download it and manually place it in the root/system/ folder. Not a deal-breaker by any means but certainly a turn-off for the casual user who just wants an Android experience on his or Windows PC.

When you start Windroy, it will load into full-screen mode. You can switch it into windowed mode, but it doesn’t have a convenient setting to launch it in that mode. You’ll probably notice that sound doesn’t work either. That probably doesn’t make a big difference for most apps, but it does ensure that Bluestacks remains the Android gaming king on Windows for the time being. In addition, Windroy doesn’t support mouse wheels, and there’s no indication of if or when that support is coming.

A really nice aspect of Windroy is the built-in documentation. It covers everything and is arguably better than any other Android emulator available in this regard. In addition, when the program is updated, you can be sure that the documentation has been updated as well. One not-so-nice aspect of Windroy is that it requires email registration and cannot be used without a valid email address.

Pros

  • Android emulator for Windows
  • Runs Android natively in Windows
  • Strong help documentation

Cons

  • Doesn’t support the latest Android version
  • No Google Play
  • No audio
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