The unholy alliance… Windows 11 + Android

[Plouffe]

 

Windows 11 launched without one of its most anticipated features - Android apps via the Amazon Appstore! Now it’s finally here. Should you though?

 

Check out Bluestacks: https://lmg.gg/T3eG7

Check out Bignox: https://lmg.gg/nmyUs

Buy Windows 11: https://geni.us/ktYChU

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

 

 

 

[da na]

If it offers any good improvements over BlueStacks, which I'm already using, I may consider an upgrade to 11 but I don't see the point now. It's cool that they're including it for those who don't already use an emulator though. 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

8 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

If it offers any good improvements over BlueStacks, which I'm already using, I may consider an upgrade to 11 but I don't see the point now. It's cool that they're including it for those who don't already use an emulator though. 

like they said, android 11, which is nice becasue some stuff i tried on bluestacks wouldnt work becasue it uses android 7

[Kilrah]

Also the integration is much better, bluestacks is quite bloated. WSA is completely transparent, apps end up in your start menu, you click on one and it just opens in a window like any other app would, etc. 

[Error 52]

I was excited for the Android support in mostly a "Cool to mess around with" way, but Anthony mentioning 2FA genuinely made me go "Oh, damn".

[Kilrah]

https://github.com/voletro/wsa-toolbox

 

This makes it more convenient to sideload things.

 

I personally have a version of WSA with google installed and everything works fine.

[poochyena]

I used to use memu for android emulation. idk why this video spent so much time acting like this is some new thing. I wish they spent more time on comparing it to other android emulation options.

[AndreiArgeanu]

Looks like a cool feature for Windows 11. Not enough to make me switch yet. But it's great to see since I'm sick of all the bloat, old android versions and all the ads when I tried to use something like blue stacks. It looks slick and whenever I move to Windows 11 I'll definitely use it, but as of now I don't really use or need an Android emulator.

[CarlosFFM]

7 hours ago, Mel0nMan said:

If it offers any good improvements over BlueStacks, which I'm already using, I may consider an upgrade to 11 but I don't see the point now. It's cool that they're including it for those who don't already use an emulator though. 

I mean, I am currently trying a lot of sideloaded apps. It is probably collecting a lot of data, but even after that is is probably safer than the emulators and there are a lot of performance problems with emualtors (at least I found a lot in high demand games) that don't seem to be present in WSA.

[WhitetailAni]

Wonder when people will figure out how to install this on W10?

[LAwLz]

19 hours ago, Error 52 said:

I was excited for the Android support in mostly a "Cool to mess around with" way, but Anthony mentioning 2FA genuinely made me go "Oh, damn".

I am surprised that Anthony mentioned running 2FA on Windows.

The reason why I am surprised is that he should know better than to recommend that.

 

Running authenticator apps on your PC is a bad idea, because it weakens the security. Authenticator apps like Microsoft authenticator typically don't have a PC version on purpose. You are suppose to need to authenticate yourself using your phone (something you have, which is one factor in multi-factor authentication). Being able to authenticate yourself on the device you are signing in on means the "something you have" part of the multi-factor authentication chain is broken and might as well not exist.

 

 

 

 

How much this matters will obviously vary from situation to situation, but only needing access to one device is inherently less secure than needing access to two devices.

Security usually comes at the price of convenience, and vice versa.

[Ultraforce]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

I am surprised that Anthony mentioned running 2FA on Windows.

The reason why I am surprised is that he should know better than to recommend that.

 

Running authenticator apps on your PC is a bad idea, because it weakens the security. Authenticator apps like Microsoft authenticator typically don't have a PC version on purpose. You are suppose to need to authenticate yourself using your phone (something you have, which is one factor in multi-factor authentication). Being able to authenticate yourself on the device you are signing in on means the "something you have" part of the multi-factor authentication chain is broken and might as well not exist.

 

 

 

 

How much this matters will obviously vary from situation to situation, but only needing access to one device is inherently less secure than needing access to two devices.

Security usually comes at the price of convenience, and vice versa.

I could see an arguement if you have your password manager lock every time you have your computer sleep or close the browser using a password manager's Authenticator Key could be okay, but it's still definitely not as good as a dedicated app on a smartphone or a physical device like a yubikey. Though what they are talking about is as you said really not a good idea.

[ExpiredPancake]

here is how you get the Play Store on Windows.  (This requires a github account.) 

 

LSPosed/MagiskOnWSA: Integrate Magisk root and Google Apps (OpenGApps) into WSA (Windows Subsystem for Android) (github.com)

 

(There is a video tutorial in the link)
 

Just Create a Fork of this file, run the workflow, and download for the corresponding version of windows you run on. X64/ARM64. There is a powershell script in the .zip which does all the heavy lifting. Just be sure to keep the file somewhere on your desktop. Apparently it registers your device as a Pixel 5? 

 

Also, for some reason there are a LOT of incompatible apps. If an app does not show up in your search results on the store it's likely because it's incompatible.