How to Run Android (4.4+) on your PC for Free

Android is the mobile OS with the largest and ever-growing market share, owing to its customizability and its open-Source nature. Android, due to the Smartphone-era boom has grown so much into us, that it has encouraged various developers to build AOSP for PC devices too.

With a growth in graphics-intensive games and productivity apps, for people with not-so-flagship phones or OEM-customized UI (read Touchwiz), it gets cumbersome to enjoy the experience to the fullest. With current spate in the move of tech industry towards the 9+-inch market, it seems justifiable for a need to run Android on PC too, for better graphics, or convenience or the heck of it.

But, with Google not taking any stand on this matter, we have seen other developers taking a lead in this foray, and even doing a good job at it.

I would like to mention a few projects -

Bluestacks - Bluestacks App Player has become a household name in the tech world. Owing to its easy installation on Windows (XP,Vista or 7/8), up to date Android interface and numerous compatible game apps, it has become a reliable platform to run your favorite Android apps from PC. [Free, Android 4.4 build available]

Andy - Andy, the Android Emulator is the new kid on the block, but a smart one at that. It boasts of various features which are absent in Bluestacks, like full ARM support. Phone as controller etc., but the main advantage of Andy is that it runs equally well as Bluestacks, or even better at a few places like better connection for network-dependent games/apps (like Clash of Clans etc) and seemingly no lag in productivity apps unlike Bluestacks (like Google Drive). Since, it is based on Virtual Box, you can also configure the allotted RAM as per your convenience. [Free]

Official Android Emulator - Google provides an Android emulator as part of the Android Studio and  SDK Tool. But, this Android emulator is for developer purposes only and not user-friendly. It is a bit slow and isn’t a good option for everyday use. [Lollipop build source available to download]

Android on Intel Architecture -  Intel is developing its own project of Android for Intel Architecture with UEFI firmware. It lets you install Android in dual-boot with Windows, but this development won't work on every device as only Acer Iconia W700, Lenovo X220T, Lenovo X230T, Samsung XE700T are officially supported currently. [Android 4.4.2 build available to download]

Android-x86 - The most versatile and practical of the port-Android-to-PC projects. This project is to port Android to x86 architecture i.e. Intel and AMD processors, which means that it can be installed on your PC just like Windows or Ubuntu. It can be installed on the old laptop you have at home, but not using at the time or be Dual-booted with Windows/Ubuntu and even run on VM. It can also be installed on external Hard disk or even USB drive, making it portable as it can be booted from any laptop/desktop without data loss. [OpenSource, Android 4.4.2 stable build available to download, Android 5.0 Lollipop build under development]

If you have any questions or inputs, leave a comment below and I will get back to you.