HomeWinBuzzer NewsBuild 2018: Microsoft Is Bringing Android Emulator Support to Hyper-V

Build 2018: Microsoft Is Bringing Android Emulator Support to Hyper-V

An Android emulator is finally available natively in Windows due to support in Microsoft's Hyper-V. The tool can be run in tandem with Docker, VMs, and other tools.

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So far, Build 2018 has shown an attitude towards cross-platform that is unprecedented for Microsoft. Another aspect of that newfound openness is the availability of Android emulator support in .

For the unfamiliar, Hyper-V is a virtualization system that lets users run other OSes inside of Windows. They run in their own environment without affecting the rest of the OS, making them extremely useful for testing.

In with Xamarin, has introduced an Android emulator to this service, allowing it to be run side-by-side with VMs, Docker, or the HoloLens emulator. For developers, it means a fast testing experience that will incorporate the latest APIs and Google Play Services.

The Windows Hypervisor Platform

According to Microsoft's engineer Miguel de Icaza, the addition is made possible by the Windows Hypervisor platform.

“The Windows Hypervisor Platform was introduced in the April 2018 Update and enables third-party virtualization stacks to utilize the Windows Hypervisor for hardware acceleration,” he explains in a blog post. “If you are using Hyper-V, this stack replaces Intel HAXM as the hypervisor for the Android emulator.”

As a result, it requires the latest update to run and is still currently in preview. You can enable the Windows Hypervisor Platform by heading to ‘Turn Windows features on or off' and ticking the relevant box.

To gain access to the emulator, users then have to download and install the Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin preview. It's a fairly simple process that developers have been waiting for.

SourceMicrosoft
Ryan Maskell
Ryan Maskellhttps://ryanmaskell.co.uk
Ryan has had a passion for gaming and technology since early childhood. Fusing the skills from his Creative Writing and Publishing degree with profound technical knowledge, he enjoys covering news about Microsoft. As an avid writer, he is also working on his debut novel.

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