Run Android apps with BlueStacks

Aug 12, 2013 - Ojas Sarup |

Age Correspondent

If, for some reason there’s an Android app that you want on your PC, BlueStacks App Viewer is a good way to go about it.
The software emulates an Android environment so that apps can be installed and run from within it. It’s still in Beta, and you may run into some problems but it does work fairly well. It’s a small initial download but it starts a larger one during installation, so it’ll take a while to get it running. You’ll have to provide a Google account, and I was praying and hoping that my account info doesn’t go to BlueStacks HQ. Since it emulates Android (in this case, 4.2.3), I don’t think that should happen, and it seemed the software stored my account details locally. You can download apps from the Play Store, Mobile Market or Amazon’s app store. I stuck to Google Play to be on the safe side, and I could browse the Play Store like I would on an Android phone or tablet. You can install stuff similarly. By default it opens up a 1024x586 fullscreen window, and I saw it use 3 of my CPU’s cores. However, Qualcomm’s Velamo benchmark showed my device as a Samsung NT-2000 with a single ARM core and 740MB of RAM. Now, most apps should run without an issue (including WhatsApp, Temple Run, Jetpack Joyride, Angry Birds, etc.), and the environment supports the keyboard, mouse and controllers without an issue. Benchmarks may not run properly, since they’re more low level. Velamo’s HTML5 tests were having issues, though its Metal tests returned a score of 1957 for my computer. This excludes the Stream 5.9 test, since it failed to run. GFXBench failed to run, probably because of the OpenGL 2.0 ES requirement. Uninstallation was bit of a pain, I couldn’t remove my account from the app, and after I uninstalled the App Viewer, I discovered another component (BlueStacks Notification Centre) that refuses to uninstall. I manually deleted the folder and cleaned the Registry, so most traces of it should have gone, however the “Programs and Features” list in the Control Panel still lists it.
If you have a Windows tablet or touchscreen notebook (both Windows and Mac), this might be a good way to access other apps that you use on your Android device. Just remember that it’s in Beta, and buggy.

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