Greetings, dear reader. In today's article, I will tell you how you can run the Windows operating system on your gadget based on the Android mobile operating system. This can be done using special software, such tools are called emulators. Using these programs, we will run Windows on your gadget (phone or tablet with Android OS).

The practical benefits of this operation can be quite significant.. In addition to surprising your friends by running Windows on your device, very specific problems can be solved. For example, you need to run a program on your Android gadget that only works on Windows. You can also run some simple Windows games.

So, below you can find a list of emulator programs, as well as short descriptions and instructions for them. I would like to warn you right away, because... Windows is a fairly resource-intensive system, so your Android gadget should be relatively powerful.

QEMU

A good emulator that will allow you to run Windows 98 (95) on your device. Below you can find short instructions on how to use this software.:

• Download the QEMU emulator (sdlapp.apk) from our website and install it on your Android device;
• Download the file with BIOS firmware, drivers, etc. You can also download this file from our website via a direct link (sdl.zip). Unpack the archive to the root of the SDCard;
• Next, you need to download the Windows operating system image; this emulator only supports Windows 95 and Windows 98. Links – – ;
• Next, from the archive downloaded in the previous step, we take out the C.img file and “throw” it into the “SDL” folder in the root of your SDCard;
• We launch the program installed in the first stage. If everything is done correctly, Windows will start.

Running programs in the emulator

A short instruction on how to run programs in QEMU. So, let's begin:

• Download the archive with images (empty). Link from our website – qemu_hdd.rar;
• Download the WinImage program (winimage_8.10.8100.rar). Using this tool, you need to upload your files into an image of a suitable size;
• Next, you need to rename the image with your program files to “D.img” and transfer it to the SDL (folder) on your SDCard;
• In the sdl.conf file you need to add the line: “/sdl -L . -m 128 -boot c -hda C.img -hdb D.img -usb -usbdevice tablet”;
• Start Windows, install the necessary programs from drive “D”.

BOCHS

Another one for devices based on the Android operating system. Theoretically, this emulator will allow you to run any version of Windows operating system, but, relatively speaking, only two will work stably - 98 and 95. If you want to install XP or 7, then be prepared for the fact that they (XP, 7) will not work as well , as you would like. So, let's start setting up:

• Download and install the device (

Big fans of Windows, having spent many years on the operating system, are trying to teach modern smartphones to run programs and games written for the desktop OS. Some last for several days, while others make every effort to see the cherished greeting on the screen of their smartphone.

But is Windows and its software even needed on an Android device? Isn’t it easier to find an analogue of the required program, developed specifically for the “green robot”? Be that as it may, we will tell you about ways to run Windows on Android, but decide for yourself whether it is necessary.

How to Run Windows Programs on Android

Most often, this idea is asked by users who simply wanted to experiment with systems and software. Agree, it’s interesting to look at an old game for personal computers running on an Android smartphone. But these systems have different architectures, which prevents programs and games from running freely.

On Windows, as many people know, programs have the extension .exe, on Android it is completely different - .apk. However, special tools can still make .exe programs work on Android. These tools are called emulators, and today we will get acquainted with the most popular of them.

1. Want to play around with the systems' capabilities a little? We will install an emulator that allows you to easily switch to the native system of your smartphone. Essentially, this is a simple program that will not affect Android in any way.
2. Have you ever thought about turning your device into a full-fledged computer? You will have to study its characteristics (find out whether the processor supports the desired architecture), search through a bunch of forums, and perhaps you will be able to get the system to work more or less normally.

To completely replace one system with another, the device processor must have the appropriate architecture (for Windows - i386). You should also note that doing such manipulations is very risky - there is a high probability of simply disabling the device. If the tablet was originally developed on Android, then it is very difficult to make its hardware work at least somehow with Windows.

1. Need a fullWindowsin your pocket that will work perfectly without errors. The best option would be to buy a compact DualBoot tablet that runs on two popular operating systems at once.
2. I just like the lookWindows? There are users who, in principle, are satisfied with the capabilities of Android, but like the design of the Windows interface. If you are one of them, then go to Google Play, where there are a lot of free applications (launchers) that will turn your smartphone into a mini-PC.

Windows emulators for Android

The simplest and safest way to run Windows games and programs on Android is through emulators. They are special applications that have a minimal impact on the operating system - you can be sure that your smartphone or tablet will not turn into a “brick”.

Today there are many emulators, we have selected several of the most popular. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but there is a common feature - none of the emulators support internet connection.

We also need to make a small digression: Windows is a rather “gluttonous” system, so it is advisable to have a productive device. If you hope that you will be able to run GTA 5 or Photoshop using an emulator, then it is better to immediately discard the idea of ​​​​installing it.

All you can run are standard Windows tools and a couple of prehistoric games, and only if the stars align correctly, since no one guarantees you absolute performance.

Now that you know about the nuances, let's move on to the emulators themselves.

QEMU

Of all the emulators that we will consider today, this one is the fastest in operation, but with an abundance of glitches. Due to its simplicity, it is suitable for beginners who do not want to get acquainted with all the nuances of emulators. More on the pros and cons later, but for now installation instructions:

1. download the necessary files (you can take everything);
2. unpack the downloaded archive;
3. Install the SDLapp.apk application on Android - and there is an emulator;
4. The SDL.zip archive must be unpacked into the root folder of the sdcard (use a file manager and any unzipping application);
5. place the win_95_em system image (will also be in the archive) in the SDL folder;

QEMU supports emulation of Windows 95 and 98. We recommend using the first version as a basis - it is more stable, easier to install and use. If you wish, it will not be difficult to find Windows 98 on the Internet, only the image must have the .img extension.

1. launch the SDLapp.apk application and enjoy loading Windows (though not everyone will be lucky).

Control occurs by dragging the mouse cursor with your finger, clicks are made using the volume buttons or double tap. You'll have to get used to it.

Now let’s talk about how to install your programs and games on Windows, which is also installed on Android. Here we will also need additional files and applications that can be downloaded. Let's move on to the instructions:

1. download Qemu_HDD.rar (archive with images) and the WinImage program, which will help load your programs into the image of the required size;
2. rename the resulting image with programs to “D.img” (without quotes), and then place it in the SDL folder, which is located in the root of the device’s memory;
3. open (create if not) sdl.conf, into which you need to insert the following line: “/sdl -L . -m 128 -boot c -hda C.img -hdb D.img -usb -usbdevice tablet” (without quotes);
4. restart Windows.

What we liked about this Windows emulator for Android:

• works quickly;
• easy to install and use.

What are its disadvantages:

• abundance of errors;
• poor technical support;
• it took a long time to get used to the controls;
• unable to connect to the Internet.

BOCHS

A popular emulator that has become famous due to its stable operation with a minimum of crashes and errors. The developer has improved the controls, which have become simpler and more understandable than in QEMU.

BOCHS is capable of emulating almost any system from the Windows family, but the performance of smartphones is not enough to quickly launch timely versions. However, there are distributions of the much-revered XP, which will already allow you to test the operation of many programs and games on an Android smartphone.

The installation instructions are similar to those we described just above for QEMU. So, we take all the necessary files and applications, after which:

1. install the BOCHS.apk program on Android, having previously allowed installation from unknown sources;
2. create the SDL folder in the root directory of the device, where we unpack the downloaded SDL_for_BOCHS.zip archive;
3. We also put the system image into the SDL folder, the name of which should be “c.img”;

The image can be downloaded on the Internet or made yourself (you only need the installation distribution of the operating system). You can create an image directly on your smartphone using the DriveDroid program, which is available on Google Play.

1. launch BOCHS.apk.

The system works stably for most users, but it is not too fast, which can be called the main disadvantage of this emulator. Control is carried out via touch screen and navigation buttons.

You can launch Windows games and programs using the method described for QEMU. Only in this case, changes are made to the bochsrc.txt file located in the SDL folder. Open it and find the line # ata0-slave: type=disk, path=”d.img” and remove the “#”. In addition, the BOCHS emulator supports another method that allows you to add the ability to run programs. In the same document (bochsrc.txt) you need to add one line - ata0-slave: type=disk, mode=vvfat, path=/sdcard/HDD, journal=vvfat.redolog.

What's good about the emulator:

• works stably;
• supports many systems;
• easy setup and operation;
• convenient control.

What are the disadvantages:

• slow;
• there is no way to connect to the Internet.

A rather interesting emulator, which, as you might understand from the name, is designed to run DOS games and programs on Android. First of all, fans of old-school games will be pleased. It works no worse than other emulators, although it has its drawbacks. In addition, enthusiasts have found a way to run Windows 95 and 98 with their programs using this emulator. We take the necessary files, then:

1. install the aDosBox.apk application on your smartphone;
2. from the config-adosbox.rar archive, take the dosbox-0.74.conf file and move it to the “\sdcard\app-data\org.hystudio.android.dosbox\.dosbox\” folder, which will appear after installing the application;
3. download the image of Windows 95 or 98 (suitable from BOCHS) and move it to the root of the sdcard;
4. launch aDosBox.apk, wait for installation.

What you liked about the emulator:

• fairly fast and stable operation;
• convenient control;
• high-quality image display on the screen.

Its disadvantages:

• failures occur periodically;
• there is no way to go online.

Analogues of Windows programs on Android

Whatever one may say, emulators are more of a way to have fun. These programs will not be able to fully provide the user with normal working conditions: regular lags, support for a minimum of peripheral devices, and few programs can be installed.

A more reasonable solution, if you need Windows programs on Android, are analogues of the necessary software. Google's system is developing rapidly; today it is full of programs that, in terms of functionality, can replace desktop options. Only you also get convenient control, stable operation and a minimum of fuss with installation.

The same goes for games. In recent years, many releases for Windows have been transferred to Android, and quite high-quality ones at that.

If you are an ardent Windows fan, then buy a small tablet on this system that will fit in your pocket, since the price tag on them today has dropped below $100. Windows tablets can handle running popular programs without any problems, and you can play all the old games without “dancing with a tambourine.”

Conclusion

What we have as a result: Windows programs can be run on Android, but only the simplest ones. Emulators are quite interesting tools that can keep you busy for an evening. But, be that as it may, it will not be possible to replace a personal computer with their help, and is it necessary?

Android today is ready to offer thousands of applications for every taste that can replace programs written for Windows. In addition, this system is well adapted to touch screens.

QEMU is a free program that allows you to emulate software on a wide variety of platforms. Includes emulation of popular Intel x86 processors and I/O devices. It is open source. This means that each user can modify the utility, make any changes to it to their liking, download QEMU and make it much better.

Other x86-compatible processors include ARM, SPARC, MIPS, SPARC64, AMD64, 80386 and 80486, Pentium and Pentium Pro, AMD64, etc.

What platforms can QEMU run on? Their list is very diverse and includes FreeDOS, Windows 9x, Linux, Windows 2000, Mac OS X, QNX FreeBSD, and Android.

The creator of the program is a fairly well-known programmer from France, Fabrice Bellard. It was he who developed the libavcodec library. Currently it is used by applications such as MPlayer, VideoLAN, FFmpeg and ffdshow.

Features of the QEMU emulator:

• High speed and stability. Any freezes of programs or OS after launching QEMU are practically excluded.
• It is a cross-platform program, so it can run on most well-known operating systems.
• Compared to other emulators, it is characterized by ease of setup. Even though the application only supports English, you will be able to understand it within a few minutes after launch.
• Fairly frequent release of official updates.

According to the developers, in the near future QEMU will support hardware virtualization technology.

The advantage of virtualization is that it allows you to run several different operating systems on one computer simultaneously, and it does not matter what architecture they are. Among home users, computer emulation programs such as Virtualbox and VMware are often used; these are powerful programs with a graphical interface and many features that are very easy to set up.

But there are other solutions that give more control over the virtualization process and are also more complex. One such tool is qemu. In this manual, we will look at what qemu is and how to use qemu for virtualization, in addition, we will analyze its advantages over other programs.

Qemu is a free and open source tool for emulating and virtualizing operating systems on a computer. The program can run on Windows, Linux, MacOS and even Android. Host resources such as CPU, hard disk, memory are shared among the virtual machines.

Qemu uses hardware virtualization so it can run guest operating systems almost as fast as on host hardware. The XEN hypervisor or the KVM kernel module on Linux can be used. Qemu can work in two operating modes:

• Full system emulation- in this mode, qemu completely emulates a device, for example, a computer, including all its components, processor and various peripherals. It can be used to run multiple operating systems without rebooting or debugging system code.
• User mode emulation- works only for a Linux host, allows you to run Linux processes compiled for one architecture in another, for example, ARM programs in x86. Useful for development, cross-compilation and debugging.

The following architectures can be emulated: x86 (32 and 64 bits), PowerPC (32 and 64 bits), ARM, MIPS (32 bits), Sprac (32 and 64 bits), Alpha, ColdFire (m68k), CRISv2 and MicroBlaze. This list is already more impressive than that of Virtualbox.

Installing qemu

Before we can use the program, we need to install it. If you are using a Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, you can find the program in the official repositories. For Ubuntu the command will look like this:

sudo apt install qemu-kvm qemu

For Fedora and other RedHat systems, you can install the Virtualization group:

sudo dnf install @virtualization

On ArchLinux use Pacman:

For Windows or MacOS, you need to download the executable file from the official website. The program is controlled only through the terminal, so you will not see anything in the main menu of the system after installation. Now let's move on to how to configure qemu.

How to use qemu?

Now that the program is installed and ready to use, let's try to figure out how to launch and use it. But first you need to figure out which commands are used and why. The qemu emulator produces many commands, but they can be divided into groups:

• qemu architecture- emulation of the user's environment for the specified architecture;
• qemu-system-architecture- full system emulation for architecture;
• qemu-img- utility for working with disks;
• qemu-io- a utility for working with disk input/output;
• qemu-user- shell for qemu architecture, allows you to run programs of other architectures on this system;
• qemu-system- a shell for qemu-system-architecture, allows you to completely emulate a system of the desired architecture.

First, we will deal with full system emulation, since the qemu virtual machine is most often used to solve this problem, and only then we will move on to user mode.

1. Using qemu-system

So that you understand what and where it comes from, first let’s look at the options of the qemu-system utility. The command syntax is:

$qemu-system parameters

The syntax for each of the parameters is much more complicated:

-parameter_name option_name = value : value2

We will consider only the basic parameters and their options that we will need:

• -machine indicates the type of computer that you are going to emulate, you can select ubuntu, pc, pc-q35 and other options, see the -machine help command for more details;
• -cpu- processor type, you can directly transfer the processor type, as well as additional flags;
• -smp- includes simulation of multiprocessor architecture;
• -boot- allows you to configure the boot order of devices, a,b - floppy disk, c - first hard drive, d - CDROM, n-p - boot via network, by default the virtual machine boots from the hard drive;
• -m- indicates the amount of RAM available to the machine;
• -k- default keyboard layout;
• -soundhw- connect the sound card to the system;
• -device- connect the specified device to the machine, you need to specify the driver and its options;
• -name- the name of the guest system will be displayed at the top of the window;
• -uuid- set the UUID for the system;
• -fda, fdb- connect a floppy disk from a file;
• -hda, hdb- connect a hard drive from a file;
• -cdrom- connect an optical drive;
• -usb- enable USB support;
• -usbdevice- connect a USB device;
• -display- select the display type, sdl, curses, gtk, none, vga and others are available;
• -full-screen- run in full screen;
• -no-acpi- disable ACPI support;
• -net- create a network interface;
• -realtime enable real-time mode, the mclock option must be set to on;
• -gdb- wait for the gdb debugger to connect;
• -enable-kvm- enable kvm support;
• -loadvm- load saved state;
• -daemonize- make the process background;
• -snapshot- write changes not to a hard disk file, but to separate files;
• -nographic- disable graphic output.
• -kernel- use the specified linux kernel image.
• -append- command line for the kernel;
• -initrd- initrd file for booting Linux.

We looked at the options for qemu-system-x86-64; for other architectures, they may differ slightly. Now let's look at a few simple examples of how to use qemu, how to create a qemu machine and configure it.

First you need to create a hard drive for installation. You can use real hard drives, but working with images is much more convenient. You can simply create an empty file, padded with zeros, and then format it to the desired file system during installation, but you can also create a file in qcow2 format, which is the default format in qemu. Let's use the qemu-img command:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 ubuntu.qcow 10G

The -f option specifies the format of the new file. Now we can directly proceed to launching qemu-system. This is what the simplest system startup command will look like:

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda ubuntu.qcow -boot d -cdrom ~/downloads/ubuntu-17.04-server-amd64.iso -m 640

Here we connect our hard drive as hda, then specify that we need to boot from cdrom and connect the ubuntu system image to it. The last parameter specifies how much RAM will be allocated to the machine.

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda ubuntu.img -m 640

Creating a virtual machine with a different architecture is not very difficult, just change the command. For example, let's make a ppc virtual machine:

qemu-system-ppc -hda ubuntu.qcow -boot d -cdrom ~/downloads/ubuntu-17.04-server-amd64.iso -m 640

Since we are not currently using kvm, the system will work very slowly; everything can be greatly speeded up if you enable it using the -enable-kvm option:

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda ubuntu.qcow -m 640 -enable-kvm

By default there will be no sound in the guest system, but you can connect a sound card there:

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda ubuntu.qcow -m 640 -enable-kvm -soundhw ac97

We don’t always run the machine only as a server, sometimes we need to run a regular desktop system, in which case we will have to configure a virtual video card, because what comes by default is only enough for the console. To do this, use the -vga option:

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda ubuntu.qcow -m 640 -enable-kvm -soundhw ac97 -vga qxl

Using the -global qxl-vga.vram_size option, you can set the amount of video memory available to the machine, the value is indicated in bytes, for example:

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda ubuntu.qcow -m 640 -enable-kvm -soundhw ac97 -vga qxl -global qxl-vga.vram_size=4294967

For many machines, it is important that they have access to the Internet. Setting up a qemu network is a fairly broad topic that we will not fully cover in this article. In short, qemu uses a special virtual gateway vlan, which allows you to connect machines to an external network or to each other. Each vlan has its own number. The easiest way to configure a network is to use these parameters:

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda ubuntu.qcow -m 640 -enable-kvm -net nic,vlan=0 -net user,vlan=0

Here we call the -net option twice, the first time we create a virtual network card using the -nic parameter and connect it to vlan number 0. The second -net option creates our vlan 0 with the user configuration type, which does not require additional configuration and automatically connects to the host network.

2. Using environment emulation

Now let's look at using qemu to emulate the architecture in the user's environment. The qemu-user or qemu-architecture command allows you to run programs compiled for another architecture directly on your system. This is very often used for debugging programs compiled for arm on a computer or other similar tasks. The command just needs to pass the command and its parameters.

Next is a parting word that the unit must have enough RAM. What's left to do? Close the program and go scouring old disks, looking for Fallout 2. We need the image in .img format. It needs to be placed in the SDL folder, in the same place where the Windows image is located. Inside we create a file sdl.conf (if there is none) and write the following inside

/sdl -L. -m 128 -cdrom F2.img -hda w95.img -boot d -usb -usbdevice tablet

Launch QEMU, load Windows 95, one of the discs will contain Fallout 2. And if the stars are favorable to you, you will be able to play. And if you connect a mouse and keyboard, you can play comfortably.

Second way. Homemade, but more reliable

For this method we need to thank the guys from w3bsit3-dns.com who modified QEMU to work with Windows. To start, download the files from the link in the first paragraph. This is our modified libSDL, running separately from QEMU itself. It is configured exclusively in sdl.conf, but supports single and double clicks with the left and right mouse buttons via the volume keys.

Instructions