Simply browse your hard drive and select the Android-x86 ISO to load it in the virtual machine, and then click OK when you’re done. There, click the disc icon to the right of ‘CD/DVD Drive’ and select Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file from the drop-down menu that appears. Click the Storage button in the VM manager and, in the window that appears, select the Empty option underneath ‘Controller: IDE’ to bring up various ‘Attributes’ options to the right. Next, you need to point the VM at your Android-x86 ISO. (Remember: Android was made for phones, so it doesn’t take much space, even with multiple apps installed.)īoom! The VM appears in the VirtualBox manager. From there, you’ll want to pick up from the “Install Android on your PC” segment below.Ĭreate a virtual hard drive using the default options, adding more storage if you wish. If you want to dual-boot Android regardless, the steps for doing so are basically the same as dual-booting Windows 8, at least up until the point of actually installing Android. (Trust me-I tried it on three different machines.) Even so, running Android in a virtual machine is more consistently headache-free than dual-booting it. Hardware support for the operating system can be hit-and-miss, though the Android-x86 project mitigates that somewhat by providing several ISO files built around specific hardware, such as Asus and Lenovo ThinkPad laptops. And yes, you can install Android on your computer’s hard drive-but I don’t recommend even dual-booting this particular OS. How does Google’s mobile-focused operating system stack up on a full-size, not-so-mobile computer? You’ll know firsthand after giving Android a test drive in a virtual machine.Īdmittedly, virtual machines aren’t as peppy as physical ones unless you have a bunch of system resources to toss around. And even if you have no plans to buy an Android PC, playing with Android on your current PC is just plain fun. The intriguing Android-x86 project has ported Google’s open-source OS from the ARM processors common in smartphones and tablets over to the x86 chips found in everyday computers, so you can take Android for a spin on your PC before plunking cash down on one of the latest examples of computing convergence. From hybrids to all-in-ones to an Intel-promised flood of incredibly cheap “ Droidbooks,” Android cometh.īut wait! Isn’t Android made for smartphones? And weren’t the first Android-powered laptops a bit … disappointing? And aren’t there some lingering questions about how Android performs in a PC-type environment?įear not, all ye curious. As the PC market hemorrhages, more and more manufacturers are turning to Google’s Android OS to power PCs that once carried Windows alone. Windows 8’s bold grab for tablet relevance may snatch headlines, but it isn’t the only operating system looking to extend its established supremacy over a whole new class of devices.

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