Android on your PC
IS A PC ANDROID POSSIBLE?
WE’VE WRITTEN BEFORE about new uses for old Android devices, but what about old computers; can they receive an Android upgrade?
We retrieved a ten-year-old Acer Aspire One netbook (remember netbooks?) from the back of a cupboard. It ran at a glacial pace on Windows 10 and seemed a perfect candidate for Android. With just 1MB of RAM it had struggled on Windows 7, too.
Recent Android versions should run super fast on PC hardware, and all the Android apps and online services would be available. So: could we replace Windows 10 with Android 10?
The answer turned out to be maybe, sometimes... It requires technical skill, patience, and a degree of luck. There’s no simple “How To” for this challenge but exploring the following options might get you there!
ANDROID EMULATORS
Stock Android can’t run on standard Windows computer processors and architecture; it’s designed for mobile platforms. The simplest way to run Android on a computer is in an Android emulator program for Windows or macOS, such as BlueStacks – www.bluestacks.com – but that requires a fairly current spec computer, not our old netbook. We installed BlueStacks on a 2GB Asus notebook and it ran – very slowly - while on a 16GB Core i7 Desktop it is very fast.
Bluestacks is free and probably the easiest way to experiment with running Android on a current Windows or Apple computer. It is a stable and user-friendly system that has been progressively developed since 2011, and is now focussed on performance and mobile gaming support. It claims to be “The Fastest Mobile Gaming Platform on Earth”.
BlueStacks runs Android within a window on your Windows desktop, allowing you to use Android apps just like any other program.
The screen looks like a browser, with tabs to switch between the apps you’re running.
You can install an Android launcher from the Google Play Store, along with other apps, to get the look, feel and functions of Android.
GO NATIVE ANDROID
While Android Emulators might be easy to use, we were interested in finding a version of Android that would run on an old low-spec computer.
However, we found that Android versions available for PCs are mostly designed for fairly recent Intel CPUs. Most are also volunteer projects with limited development and system compatibility, so don’t expect simplicity or reliability.
NOTE: As with all non-mainstream software on the web, make sure you are running a strong anti-malware app and be careful what you click on. We cannot verify the safety of any website.
Options we found include:
PHOENIX OS
www.phoenixos.com/phoenixos
Phoenix OS suits computers with Intel x86 processors from the past five years with more than 2GB of RAM. It is based on the Android platform but includes many aspects
of personal computer operating systems, while supporting millions of Android apps. It even comes with Microsoft Office Lite, but that may only be in Chinese!
PRIMEOS
https://primeos.in
PrimeOS also provides a desktop experience similar to Windows or MacOS, with access to millions of Android apps. It is intended to be a fusion of Android and PC.
There are several versions and the “PrimeOS Classic 32 bit” looked the most promising for older computers.
OPENTHOS
https://www.fosshub.com/OPENTHOS.html OpenThos is a free, open source OS project based on Android-x86. It has a full set of features and the source code is available on GitHub.
The official website is largely written in Chinese, but English is an install option. There seemed to only be 64-bit versions available, with a focus on newer highspec machines.
That said, if you want to run a fully featured Android OS on a newish computer, OpenThos may be worth investigating.
BLISS OS
https://blissroms-x86.github.io/
Bliss OS is another free, open source OS project based on Android-x86, from the USA this time. Again, the focus is on newer 64 bit machines, although they have an “experimental” 32-bit version available for download.
Bliss is promoted as an alternative OS for phones, tablets & PCs with Desktop GUI. Their focus is to provide a quality OS that Open Source enthusiasts can run universally, syncing apps, settings and customisations across all platforms running Bliss.
REMIX OS FOR PC
https://www.fosshub.com/Remix-OS.html
Current versions of Remix OS for PC require computers with a 2 GHz dual core processor or better, minimum 2 GB system memory and minimum 8 GB of free hard drive space.
This did not look promising for our old netbook, although we were able to download a “Legacy” 32-bit version that may yet work.
ANDROID-X86
www.android-x86.org
Android-x86.org set out to make stock Android available to anyone with a PC, and is the basis for several of the above systems. This is completely stock Android with no additions, and installation is a lot more complex than some of the applications listed above.
There is plenty of information available on the web about Android-x86, but most of it is quite technical. The system has been verified for a number of PCs, including one of the original netbooks: the Asus Eee PC range.
However, despite much experimentation we could not get Android-x86 to run on either of our test machines. It seems to be very model-specific.
THE CHROMIUM OS ALTERNATIVE
Rather than convert to Android, you can convert your old computer into a Chromebook – almost.
Chrome OS itself is not available for installation on computers other than official Chromebooks, but it is built on an opensource project named Chromium OS, and there are versions of Chromium OS designed to run on standard computers.
The best of these is probably CloudReady from Neverware, and there is a free version with good instructions available at: www.neverware.com/freedownload.
Again, CloudReady expects at least 2GB of RAM and preferably a 64 bit processor, so we figured we were stretching our luck with the 1GB Acer netbook. With just a couple of clicks the provided tool installed the 32-bit version of CloudReady on a USB drive. We then plugged that USB drive into the Acer netbook and powered up.
The netbook immediately booted into Chromium OS without issues. There was a prompt to sign into a Google account, and as soon as that was done the Chromium browser synced bookmarks, extensions and even its theme.
You can also install Chromium OS on the hard drive as the default operating system, but the process will wipe all data so backup first. CloudReady used to offer a dual-boot option, but compatibility issues with Windows 10 have seen it phased out.
Overall, implementing Chromium OS was easy and effective. It gives you a simple operating system with better performance on old hardware, and a Chromebook-like experience. Everything just worked, including the mouse, and there was access to all files on the computer.
However, unlike a Chromebook or an Android PC, Chromium OS cannot install and run Android apps from the Google Play Store. So your old computer has a new lease of life, but misses out on all that fun and functionality!