After being in a Google plus and Facebook game reviewer for a sometime I found myself to be limited by the number of new games on these platforms. So, I my next plan was to start reviewing Android games, but for that I needed an Android tablet or smartphone which I had no plans to buy just to play a few games!
So, after discussing this problem with a friend I was suggested the idea of installing Android Emulator on my PC. Well, this was just what I needed, a virtual Android platform right on my laptop.
But on doing a search I found that the steps to install Android Emulator were nowhere explained in detail. I found that installation process of Android Emulator on Windows Vista and Windows 7 were explained in detail but not for Windows XP (which I am using) because this OS is now outdated. However, to be honest, many people still use Windows XP for its simplicity and low level hardware configuration requirement. So, I went ahead and started taking my snapshots and recording my experience installing the Windows XP Android Emulator which I will describe now:
How to install BlueStacks Android Emulator on your Windows XP computer
- The software which you need is called BlueStacks Android Emulator and is available for free. You can download it from the website.
- The download file (3.6 MB) in not the set up file, instead the set up files are downloaded on the fly while the set up runs.
Well, yeah, that's the only steps in the installation like a simple software, however, if you have the basic Windows XP then you need to go through many more set ups which added with the BlueStacks setup require nearly 700MB of download.
Pre-requisites to install BlueStacks Android Emulator
- BlueStacks Android Emulator installs on Windows XP SP3. So, you need to download the SP3 package which is about 316 MB in size. I suggest you install the Service Pack not only for the Android Emulator but also for other performance and security related updates.
- The next thing you need to install is the Microsoft Developer tool, .NET 3.5 SP. This is also available for free but is about 231MB is size.
System hardware requirements for Bluestacks Android Emulator
- You need to have a graphic card of at least Intel 4 Chipset family with video memory of 1GB otherwise you will have to do with a lower graphic power installation of BlueStacks and as a result many of the gaming apps won't run on your PC
- 1GB of RAM is also required.
If you have the above two installations then you can simply run the installation of BlueStacks which is itself of nearly 226MB. I can't tell the exact size because it had installed on the fly and I did not track my data usage during the process but the uninstall file size is about that much.
Post-requisites for BlueStacks Android Emulator
Though you installation will run successfully after you have satisfied the pre-requisites and installed BlueStacks Android Emulator, but to run some apps and most of the games you also need to have Adobe AIR installed on the BlueStacks platform. It won't do it you have Adobe AIR installed on the computer; the Android installation of Adobe AIR is different.
When you are informed about the Adobe AIR requirement through a dialogue box, select the option to install Adobe AIR, select the option to buy it from the Android Market (Google Play) and not the website because to install Adobe AIR in BlueStacks Android Emulator you need to have a Google Play account. This way you will also be able to open a Google Play account which will be useful in future too.
After you have installed Adobe AIR you will be able to enjoy all the apps on Google Play right on your desktop.
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| Guest Author: Arpit 20 Dec 2012 |
it sys that it only works on windows installer version 4.5 or higher
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| Author: Ankit 20 Dec 2012 | Member Level: Diamond Points : 0 |
Arpit,
Download it from here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942288
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| Guest Author: ayushmathur481@gmail 21 Jan 2013 |
how to do installetion.with Lower graphic power ?
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| Author: Ankit 23 Jan 2013 | Member Level: Diamond Points : 0 |
@Ayush,
It is not possible to do the installation with lower graphic power.
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| Guest Author: Steff 03 Mar 2013 |
it's really weird, because, when i install this on my Windows 7 installation, it works good, with some lag, but good, and if i install windows xp it says i need to update my Graphics card.
I have an Acer Aspire 3680
Intel GMA 945
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| Author: Ankit 03 Mar 2013 | Member Level: Diamond Points : 3 |
@Steff,
Actually I am too facing similar problem. I had installed in on XP when I wrote this tutorial. Now I have Windows 8 and it is asking me to updated my graphic card driver.
As Windows 8 has no need for external driver softwares so I am not sure what to do right now. However, if you have XP then you can try to update your graphic driver, that might solve the problem.
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