8 best free Android emulators for Windows 10
- If you have trouble using Android apps on your Windows device, try one of these best free Android emulators.
- Emulators are tools that allow Android-compatible programs to run on Windows PC.
- Luckily, there are plenty of such tools on the market and you'll easily find an Android emulator online.
- LD Player or BlueStacks are just some of the most common names that you'll see here.
We’re all about Windows 10 Mobile here, but the fact is that a lot more users use Android. However, a lot of Android users are also using Windows 10-powered computers.
We’re going to combine these two things, and present you the best Android emulators for your Windows PC you can find.
Although the title of the article says Windows 10, because that’s the most used OS by our readers, all these Android emulators will work for other Windows versions that you might be running, such as Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
As usually, the 1st position is the one we suggest as being the best and with the most features, but feel free to examine all your options.
What are the top 10 Android emulators for Windows PC?
LDPlayer
Topping off our list is an android emulator that deserves the #1 one spot not only because it is indeed completely free, but also because it is the best there is.
While relatively newer to the market and maybe not with the same resounding name as our other entries, LDPlayer does a wonderful job of breaking the barrier between mobile and PC gaming.
Enjoy all of the top games on Android on your PC device, and instead oh wearing and tearing through your phone’s battery and touchscreen, simply use your mighty PC with a mouse, keyboard, or controller.
The games will run smoothly, no matter how complex or large they are, even full-scale mobile MMORPGs.
All in all, LDPlayer is our top choice when it comes to merging Android and Windows OS.
LDPlayer
Need to play a n Android game but your phone can't handle it? Play it on PC with this amazing free emulator!BlueStacks
BlueStacks is definitely the most famous Android emulator (founded 8 years ago) on our list, and it is also the most widely used one. And rightfully so.
It is totally free and after several tests, we concluded that this is the best Android emulator for Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10.
BlueStacks runs 97% of what’s inside the Google Play Store on your Windows PC, as long as you run Windows XP or later.
It is the single Android App Player that we recommend virtualizing the full Android experience as a Windows software without any harm to your system.
In general, BlueStacks is the best for playing Android games on their computers, but it’s okay for other purposes, as well. Also, it’s very simple to use, so even if you’re not an ‘advanced’ user, you’ll do good with this emulator.
Unlike others, BlueStacks 3.0 allows you to run multiple Android Apps and Games simultaneously.
Furthermore, the most recent update – BlueStacks + N Beta, represents the first and only Android gaming platform to have Android 7 while the majority of other Android emulators run Android 4.4.
This means you will use an upgraded graphics engine, making your games faster and better looking. And this is exactly why BlueStacks is our single and most honest recommendation.
Bluestacks
Try out one of the most popular Android emulators in the world and find out what performance means, all completely free!Make sure to download the associated game, as shown in the screenshot above to get bonus Pika points.
You will be able to use them for special features and products. Once the link opens, you will get a ‘Download the Bla Bla Bla game’. When you click on it, BlueStacks automatically downloads and you can proceed from there.
Nox Player
Nox Player is another great Android emulator for playing Android games on your PC.
To complete the gaming experience, Nox offers some additional utilities and additions, such as the support for the computer’s keyboard and mouse, as well as the gamepad.
It could be laggy sometimes, but the overall impression is satisfying. Another good thing is that it doesn’t come with any additional software.
MEmu
MEmu is an excellent Android emulator created for one purpose only: gaming. Supporting both AMD and Intel chipsets, this tool will run on every computer.
It also supports KitKat, Lollipop and Android Jelly Bean. This makes it extremely powerful and puts it in a good position.
You can play and run almost every apps and game (problematic apps and games are problematic for every emulator, right?). From all its features, here are the most important that you should consider:
- Sharing files between Android and Windows PC
- GPS location simulation
- Watch live shows and TV channels
- Fast APK installation
- Great experience with a well-designed user desktop
⇒ Download MeMu
Droid4x
Droid4X is one of the best choices for simulating Android on your computer. Addons are among the most interesting things in this emulator, which you can use to enhance the application’s functionality.
It comes with a pre-installed Google Play Store, and also beats the competition in gaming, although there are better options in terms of stability.
Another great feature is an app that you can install on your Android phone, so you can control games on your computer. Use this free Android emulator for your Windows PC with confidence.
⇒ Download Droid4X
Genymotion
And now something for developers! Genymotion is absolutely the best Android emulator you can get, if you’re into developing Android games on your computer.
It emulates apps and games on a variety of Android devices, without requiring you to own that device.
Also, besides choosing the device Genymotion will ‘act’ as, you can also set up various versions of Android, so you can experience how apps and games work in different environments.
You can, as well, easily switch between devices, by your desire. Genymotion is something like the opposite of AMIDuOS, because it’s great for developers, but not so great for regular users.
Andy
Andy is a lesser known Android emulator for Windows PC users, but it’s completely free. It used to be a little buggy when it first came out, but most of the issues have been fixed since then.
Andy supports some unique features that are not supported by all Android emulators out there, like remotely playing games on your computer from a mobile phone, ARM support, and the ability to directly install apps, using your desktop browser.
This emulator is also interesting because it nsures most up to date Android OS at all times.
⇒ Download Andy
Koplayer
Koplayer is a well-rated app that is totally free and lets you open all the apps from Google store.
This emulator uses a brand new x86 Kernel technology that should make it faster,r better and more compatible than any other emulators. Koplayer is compatible with Windows 7, 8/8.1 and 10.
The game supports gamepad, mouse, and keyboard so your gaming sessions could be more pleasant. It also offers you some interesting features for the camera, keyboard, and microphone.
That lets you record your gaming sessions, make screenshots and share it with your friends.
You can try it and let us know in the comments section how does it work.
We’ll end our list here. As you can see, there are a lot of useful Android emulators for Windows out there, which is a great improvement over a few years’ periods.
You basically can choose the right emulator, based on your needs, skill level, and desires, which is great.
To help you with that, here are a few more specific lists of emulators, depending on where you want to use them, and for what purpose:
- 5 best emulators to run iOS on your Windows PC
- 5 best Pokemon Go emulators for PC
- 5 best emulators to run Android games on Surface 3 and 4
- 6 fastest Android emulators
- 5 emulators to play Knives Out
- 4 best ad-free Android emulators
- 5 emulators to play Epic Seven
- 3 best emulators to play Ragnarok M: Eternal Love
What’s your favorite Android emulator to use on your Windows 10 computer? Or you maybe know some quality emulator that we didn’t list here? Tell us in the comments.
FAQ: Learn more about Android emulators
- Is BlueStacks a virus?
BlueStacks is an Android emulator for Windows. It allows you to run Play Store and Android apps or games on your Windows 10 device.
- Can I run Android apps in Windows 10?
Yes and one of the easiest ways to do that is by using an emulator – a software designed to accommodate Android apps for PC use.
- Does an emulator slow down the computer?
Not necessarily; but there are ways to give them a boost, for a faster gaming experience.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in January 2016 and was revamped and updated in January 2021 for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
download links don’t seem to work for me. I got some notepad++ app instead. other links only go to “thank for visiting my blog” bummer
The King Soopers ad really sucks! I’m going to try KoPlayer because it was recommended for streaming video to my Roku TV. Anyone have any better info on this? Didn’t think I’d need to go to so much trouble to cast a video from my new-ish Windows 10 pc to a new-ish smart tv. Both devices are only about a year old!
Hello,
Thank you for this information, we will be investigating this issue right away. Meanwhile, do not forget to come back on our site for more interesting content.
Cheers!
AMIDuOS is now free.
its just because you have a low rigged pc dont blame it on bluestacks runs fine for me
Hello there, T.! Thank you for your comment.
Hello, thank for your input (yeah, even the ‘f’ word is an input for our team). What you would propose to put on first from that list, so we could keep it updated to our reader’s needs?
AndY no longer supports 32-bit machines.
What emulator are this do not download them if you want play games works to fast i cant play any games junk
Nox is good, but on my case don’t work very well on my Lenovo laotop is to slow on videos. And freezing to much. I use it before my other cp crash.
Hey nice post. I hope it’s alright that I shared this
on my FB, if not, no worries just tell me and I’ll delete it.
Regardless keep up the good work.
I seen where there is a portable MeMu but I cant find the instructions on how to boot it from USB.
So, I have a Low End PC, cpu wise.
CPU: Pentium(R) G3240 3.10GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Video Card: GTX 750 ti msi
Well, most Emulators lag, especially Remix OS, since it’s a Linux system being Emulated. Thou, it works perfectly if you install it as an independent OS (Which means you can boot it without booting your windows), it’ll be like using a Linux, but having Android features as well.
BlueStacks barely lagged, even on my Pentium Dual Core E540 2.70 GHz, I also had a 9800GT at that time, and worked well with the 8600GT too.
But, it’s full of bugs, some may impact in the performance, and… it’s paid.
I would recommend MEmu, like everyone else did, hasn’t crashed yet, worked every app I tried so far, and unlikely some people said, IT DOES have access to the play store, or at least this version does,, dunno about the old ones.
Does anyone know how to install portable Memu
Windroy cannot connect to the internet.
Wanted to use Windroy but once downloaded and running it tells me I have no internet connection so is unusable.
Same thing for me. So I uninstalled it.
The only free emulator I can get to work is MeMu, however it’s massively CPU-hungry when using the Racing App, which is the only app I use it for.
Leapdroid Works great with my Windows 10 Computer.
Bluestacks still Blue Screens my Computer every time even with the new update.
DroidX doesnt work with all the new updated programs in the playstore but does not crash my computer.
Leapdroid is the way to go.
Just went to their site – it’s being discontinued…
This is not good to hear its been the best emulator for me.
It will still work until they update android again then we have to move on.
Ack
Remix Os seams to be good but sucks, i have installed it on my pc it work for 2wks and stuck, i have lost everything in my hdd. so i had to install wn7
Bluestacks is horrible Keeps Blue Screening my computer.
Runs for about 2 minutes and bam blue screen of death.
I run windows 10.
Trying the others out now
bluestacks2 is LAGGY LAGGY LAGGY! did i mention how laggy it was? i even tweaked my pc as per troubleshooting on google and youtube (tweaking the ram and vt thing) So i am now experimenting with AmiDuos. You hafta dload an additional file to run Android apps as it defaultly runs Amazon apps due to licencing issues.
Nice Info Admin …
Remix does NOT work with an AMD processor. Shoddy programming if you ask me.
That is poor, thanks for mentioning it.
Absolutely ridiculous and completely unacceptable.
I just tried MEmu and not only did it blue screen my Windows 10, it also doesn’t come with a proper uninstall utility. I would definitely not recommend anyone to install that.
Memu requires Virtualization Technology, I use Windows 10 Pro x64 and it works for me without an issue i’ve been using it for over a year now never had an issue with it.
Please checkout LeapDroid, the newest Android with best performance.
MEmu should be on this list.
In fact, it should be at the very top.
Also, this is the last time I’ll visit this crappy website full of adds.
constantly spam ads as soon as they are blocked. Adblocker shows 870 ads blocked after I read the article, and even then there are ads that aren’t blocked.
MEmu is hopeless, very jerky on surface pro 4 i5 8gb
Works fine for me. in fact I run 4 instances of memu simultaneously.
i5 2500K
16GB memory
512GB SSD
Thank you I tried about 5 others before trying MEmu and it was the only one that would play my DTV app which allowed me to play my DVR recorded shows on my laptop. Again thanks
mcafee doesnt like droidx going back to servers in china. also droidx contains minithunderengine.exe which is known malware
if you trust Mcafee, good luck.
I have to replace Bluestacks after using it 1.5 years. It continues to hang on loading on all three of my computers. Today, I got the message that Google Play Store needs to be upgraded before I can buy anything. It is updated. The problem is with Bluestacks and has been documented on Bluestacks’ forums for at least 3 years.
Bluestacks support sends me eloquently worded emails, but they just give excuses never and solve the problems. I’ve worked around the loading problems, but I’m fed up with the lastest issue.
If you use Bluestacks, for gawds sake, don’t pay them a penny. Use their free version so you don’t pay for their mistakes. I’m going to try one of above, one at a time, until I can get rid of Bluestacks.
I had the same problem. but its sorted now.
Struggled for over 2 months to get it sorted, reinstalled windows and got same error, reinstalled countless versions of bluestacks including rooted to no avail.
In the end I got MEmu. Now I don’t know why I struggled so long with bluestacks. Its useless compared to MEmu.
ko player is the best guys try it never crashes like bluestacks
MEmu is best. Well, technically Andy is best, but MEmu is more user friendly.
Play Store doesn’t work on it… so that makes it rather useless.
f***********k bluestacks
Agree, with the above recipe. Just add a “u” and a “c.”
gets hangand crashes my system dont download it best of this is droid4x very good
madarchot bluestacks
I like memu
I first discovered Andy and used that for several months. I had no end of problems. Every time Windows did an update, Andy refused to work and I had to download and install it again and work through the whole set up for the game that I wanted to play. I spent hours Googling the issues to try to fix the problems. The game kept lagging and freezing and crashing my computer. Finally it stopped working altogether after another update. I tried Droid, only to find it wouldn’t even find the game I wanted to play. Then I tried Blue Stacks. Wow – what a difference. To start with, it installed and launched into the game with no problems at all. There is no lagging, freezing and crashing. It’s smooth as silk – just like playing the game on my Android device but of course with the nice big computer screen. So far I have nothing but praise for Blue Stacks.
You must be the 0.01% that has no issues with bluestacks Andy is fairly complicated to get set up.
I would recommend MEmu, its free and don’t bug you to install free aps or pay $2.
Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try
I’ve tried using pretty much every single one of these, and if these are the “best”, I’d absolutely hate to see what the worst would be. Seriously, not one of these runs smoothly enough to consider a success.
The best is Memu, give it a try. this list is terrible,
if MEmu is the best, dont bother, buy an android tablet
Yup, MEmu is better than any other android emulators and it has three android systems at once —— Jellybean, Kitkat and Lollipop…