Science Education and Technology: How to Run the Android Emulator on Your PC

The Android emulator allows you to run a virtual device on your PC. This gives developers the opportunity to test their application projects, and allows prospective Android users to try the platform before deciding on any purchases. When you develop Android apps in the Eclipse IDE, or Integrated Development Environment, you can install the emulator along with the other development tools. However, you do not need the development environment in order to install and run the emulator, as you can acquire and execute it as a standalone program.

Instructions

- Download the Android SDK, or Software Development Kit. Choose the appropriate option for your operating system from the SDK section on the official Android Developers website, including the installer for Windows, if appropriate. The SDK is supplied as a zipped file, so unzip it to a location of your choice. You may want to create a directory especially for it, then unzip it into that directory.
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  Run the Windows installer. The Windows installer is an executable file with the ".exe" extension. Run it by double-clicking it. The installer automatically checks whether your system has the requirements to use the SDK resources. This includes the Java and JDK resources you have installed, if any. If you do not have these tools, the installer prompts you to download and install them, automating the process, so all you have to do is follow the instructions. This process can take some time as the installer downloads the necessary files.
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  Run the SDK emulator tool by locating it in your SDK files. The Android SDK and AVD Manager starts up automatically during the installation process, but to run the tool at any later date, you have to start it up manually. Browse to the location you unzipped your SDK tools into. Open the directory containing the SDK files and navigate to the "tools" folder. Run the file named "android" whenever you want to use the emulator tool, as it opens the Android SDK and AVD Manager.
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  Create a new instance of the Android emulator. Choose "Virtual Devices" from the menu on the left of the Android SDK and AVD Manager. A list of currently running emulators shows up; it should be empty at first. Click the "New" button to be presented with a window with various options. Here you can choose aspects of the emulator you want to run, including hardware, the version of the Android operating system being targeted and optional details such as SD cards. Select your chosen settings and click "Create AVD."
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  Run your emulator. Back in the Android SDK and AVD Manager, your new instance of the emulator should be displayed within the list, although there may be a short delay before this happens. Once you can see it, click to select it, then click the "Start" button. You may be prompted with an additional options window depending on your choice of emulator settings. If this happens, choose any options you like and click "Launch." A new window appears with your emulator in it. The emulator may take a few minutes to start up, in the same way that an Android device does when it is switched on. Once it starts up, you can explore and use the device emulated as you require, including the touchscreen, buttons and keypad, controlled using the mouse.

Tips & Warnings

If you are starting Android development, you do not need to run the emulator on its own, as you can run it within Eclipse.
Some of the device controls may not work as you expect on the emulator, but there are keyboard shortcuts for most functions.