VirtualBox is an open source virtualization software that allows you to emulate a real computer. In this case it will be a x86-based computer.
We need first to install it. You can download installation at the following link:
It’s available for different platforms like Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Download the right package based on your OS.
As soon as you download and install it, you can move to download the Android 4.3’s image for x86 available at the following link:
http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list
In order to run Android 4.0+ you need to enable Intel VT-X or AMD-V in your bios configuration.
Now you need to open VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine. Click on New:
Fill the following fields:
- Name : Android 4.3 (or any name you like)
- Type : Linux
- Version : 2.6
Click Next to move to the next page of the wizard and set the Memory to, at least, 1024MB (1GB) :
Click Next to all the other wizard’s pages leaving the default values. At the end of the wizard you’ll see something like this:
Now click on Settings and under Storage you need to select the iso file you downloaded before and click Ok.
You can now click on Start to boot the machine and after few seconds it will show the following screen. You need to select Installation and press Enter.
It’s now time to create a partition. Press Enter on Create/Modify partitions:
Now choose Primary, leave it the default size and press Enter.
We’ll make the partition bootable by pressing Enter when Bootable is selected. If the operation worked you’ll see under the Flags column the value Boot.
Using the Right Key move until Write and press Enter. It will ask to confirm and you’ll answer Yes. After it finish to write the partition you move to Quit using the Right Key and press Enter.
You have created the partition and now you can press Enter to use it to install Android.
You need to choose partition type ext3
It will ask you to confirm and you’ll reply Yes. It also will ask if you want to install GRUB and choose again Yes.
It will ask if you want to install /system directory as read/write and again Yes.
You finally installed Android 4.3 on your virtual machine. It’s time to run it!
The first time it will take some time to boot, but starting from the second time it’ll be faster.
Here we can finally see our Android 4.3 running. You’ll need to right click on the button below and select Disable Mouse Integration to see where you are tapping.
You can now follow the standard Android wizard and you’ll see Android 4.3 running on your PC.
Here some screenshots of Android 4.3 running:
Unfortunately some app/game do not work in this x86 version for various reasons, but you should be fine with the most common app choices.