In this video tutorial, I show you step by step how to install the Google Play Store on Windows 11 with the easiest method I know. You don’t need an emulator: a free community build of Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) from the WSABuilds project already includes the Play Store. If you don’t want to waste time with other methods, follow the steps below and watch the video until the end.
Update (October 2026): Microsoft ended support for Windows Subsystem for Android on March 5, 2025, and WSA and the Amazon Appstore are no longer available in the Microsoft Store. The community WSABuilds project still publishes builds. The WSA 2307 build from the video is still online, but older builds can crash on recent Windows 11 versions, so the project recommends its latest LTS release. For my newer walkthrough, read How to get Android Apps on Windows 11 even WSA End of Life.
In this article
Download WSA with Google Play Store
This is the build I used in the video (WSA 2307 with MindTheGapps, Amazon Appstore removed):
- Latest WSABuilds on GitHub: https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds
- All releases of Windows Subsystem for Android: https://github.com/MustardChef/WSABuilds/releases
How to read the file names:
- MindTheGapps: includes the Google Play Store and Google services.
- RemovedAmazon: the Amazon Appstore is not included.
- NoGApps: no Google Play Store. Do not pick this one if you want the Play Store.
- x64 is for Intel and AMD PCs, arm64 is for ARM devices such as Snapdragon laptops.
Before you start: requirements
These are the requirements listed by the WSABuilds project:
- Windows 11 build 22000.526 or newer.
- At least 8 GB of RAM (16 GB recommended).
- Virtualization enabled in your BIOS/UEFI.
- Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Hypervisor Platform turned on in Windows Features (press Win + R, type
OptionalFeatures.exeand press Enter). - An NTFS drive and at least 10 GB of free space on C:.
- 7-Zip or another tool that can extract
.7zfiles.
If the official WSA from the Microsoft Store is installed, uninstall it completely first.
How to install the Google Play Store on Windows 11
- Download the
.7zfile with the button above, or the newest build from the releases page. - Extract the
.7zarchive with 7-Zip and rename the extracted folder to WSA. - Move the WSA folder to a place where it can stay, for example your Documents folder. Do not delete this folder after the installation, because WSA runs from it.
- Open the folder and double-click Run.bat. Accept the administrator (UAC) prompt.
- If the script asks to enable Virtual Machine Platform, allow it, restart your PC and run Run.bat again.
- Wait until the installation finishes. Windows Subsystem for Android starts automatically. On a first install, a window asks about diagnostic data. Click OK (if two windows appear, click OK in both).
- Click the PowerShell window, press any key to close it, then close File Explorer.
- Open Google Play Store from the Start menu, sign in with your Google account and install your apps.
Note: If the window closes without asking for administrator permission and WSA is not installed, run the installer manually. Press Win + X, select Terminal (Admin) and run these two commands (replace the path with the path of your WSA folder):
cd "C:\Users\YourName\Documents\WSA"
PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Install.ps1Watch the video
The full tutorial is in the video at the top of this page. For a newer test of this method after the WSA end-of-life announcement, see my 2024 WSA guide, and for the original Microsoft method see How to install Android Apps on Windows 11 (Official Tutorial).
this is good app
Any way to install this for multiple users on the same device? i get the error “Deployment failed….Error occurred because a user was logged off. Another user has already installed an unpackaged version of this app. The current user cannot replace this with a packaged version…”
Sorry for the slow reply, Jeff. That’s a limit of WSABuilds: WSA is registered as an unpackaged app for one Windows account, and Windows then blocks the same app for every other account. The WSABuilds developer says he hasn’t seen anyone get it working on multiple users. To move it to the other account, run Get-AppxPackage -Name MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers in an admin PowerShell, then run Run.bat while signed in to that account (this removes the Android apps from the first account).
how do i add files to the virtual phone like to use like video or pictures?
Open the Windows Subsystem for Android settings app, go to Advanced settings and turn on Share user folders (under Experimental features), then use Change folder to pick the folder with your videos and pictures. After that, open the Files app from the System section and go to Subsystem for Android > Windows. Your shared files are there, and Android apps can open them too.