Earlier this week, Microsoft released the first version of Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) to Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview channels.

In this tutorial, we will show how to get WSA and up and running without an Amazon Appstore and sideload many popular Android apps via ADB.

Back during the Windows Phone era, Microsoft toyed with the idea of running Android apps on Windows 10 Mobile via a tool called Windows Bridge for Android.

Called Project Astoria, this was seen as a way to get Android developers to reuse code for easily porting apps to devices running Windows 10 Mobile.

Adding insult to injury was the bitter face-off between Google and Microsoft that led to non-availability of popular Google services for Windows Phone users.

Today, the Windows Subsystem for Android is a reality and is available for anyone running a compatible Windows 11 PC.

Just like the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2, the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) is a virtual machine running in Hyper-V that enables users to run Android binaries on Windows 11.

However, given that Microsoft cannot use Google Mobile Services (GMS), WSA is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and leverages Amazon's Appstore to deliver apps that don't rely on GMS.

In the current testing phase, about 50 Android apps are being made available via the Amazon Appstore on Windows 11 with more slated to arrive in the coming days.

Installing the Amazon Appstore automatically downloads the required binaries for the Windows Subsystem for Android.

Open the Windows Subsystem for Android entry from the Start menu to access the settings.

Enabling Developer Mode allows sideloading Android apps via the Android Debug Bridge (ADB).

The Amazon Appstore Preview has a paltry selection of apps for now, but that need not deter you from trying your favorite apps.

Aurora is an excellent repository of free, popular Android apps while F-Droid focuses squarely on open-source ones.

For the moment, we can use popular file sharing apps on Android to work our way around this limitation.

The main draw of Android is the integrated Google Mobile Services (GMS) that allows access to the Play Store and popular Google apps such as YouTube, Gmail, etc.

The availability of Windows Subsystem for Android is advantageous for Amazon, Microsoft, and the end-user in more ways than one.

Like the Windows Subsystem for Linux, enabling a seamless experience between Android and Windows is truly an admirable feat of software engineering.

Till then, the prospect of running Android on Windows is an exciting one, and it couldn't have come at a better time