Chapter 18
Using Android and Linux on Windows 11
Over the past decade, Microsoft has tried running Windows on devices of every shape and size, including a long and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to establish Windows as a smartphone platform. The Windows Phone operating system officially reached its end of life in 2019, but that doesn’t mean Microsoft has given up on the idea of bringing its technology to devices that are smaller than a laptop PC.
Today, you can find dozens of Microsoft productivity apps on the two most popular mobile platforms: iOS and Android. The Android operating system, which is based on the Linux kernel, has more than 2 billion active users. If you have an Android-powered smartphone, you can connect it to your Windows 11 PC to make both devices more useful. The secret is an app called Phone Link, which we cover in this chapter.
That’s not the only Android connection, however. Windows 11 also offers an optional feature that allows you to run apps written for Android on your PC. Those apps run in a virtualized environment called the Windows Subsystem for Android. If that sounds intriguing, keep reading. In this chapter, we explain how this subsystem works and also describe some fairly significant limitations.
And finally, there’s Linux, an alternative open source operating system favored by developers and tech enthusiasts. If you fall into either of these groups, you can read more about how to install Linux as part of Windows 11.
Linking an Android phone to your PC
If you have an Android phone, you can take advantage of a Windows 11 feature to link it to your PC for quick access to messages and notifications, as well as the option to place and receive calls, without having to take your phone out of your pocket and unlock it. Using the Phone Link app, you can also view, edit, and share any photos you’ve taken using your smartphone’s camera. With the right hardware, you can even mirror apps from your smartphone, interacting with them using your keyboard and mouse or your PC’s touchscreen.
Note
Sorry, iPhone owners, but this feature isn’t available on your platform, and third-party options we recommended in previous editions in this series have been discontinued.
Figure 18-1 shows the Phone Link app in action.
Figure 18-1 Using the Phone Link app on your Windows 11 PC, you can send text messages, check notifications, and work directly with photos on your phone’s camera roll.
The upper-left corner of the Phone Link app shows most of the status icons you need, so you can check the strength of your network signal and remaining battery life. Below that region are buttons to turn on Do Not Disturb, mute the phone’s audio, and show or hide the music player. The Notifications pane below that displays the same notifications you’d see if you were to swipe down on your phone’s screen. Note the text message at the top of the list in Figure 18-1, which includes a box for entering a quick reply without having to change screens.
To make the Android-to-Windows connection, you need two pieces of software. The Phone Link app is installed with Windows 11. On certain smartphone models from Samsung and Honor, as well as on Microsoft’s own Surface Duo, the Link To Windows service is preinstalled. On those devices, the connection options are available by swiping down from the home screen and opening Link To Windows from Quick Settings. On all other Android devices, you need to install the Link To Windows app. (A shortcut to the app’s listing in the Google Play Store is available at https://aka.ms/yourpc. Note that you can only open that URL from an Android device.)
With both of those pieces in place, make sure your phone is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your PC; then open the Phone Link app and click Get Started. Sign in with a Microsoft account and then follow the prompts to complete the connection. The Phone Link app can make the connection using a QR code that you scan using your smartphone’s camera, as shown in Figure 18-2; if that option doesn’t work, you can use a PIN code to complete the link.
Figure 18-2 The simplest way to link your Android phone to your Windows PC is to use a QR code like the one shown here.
The links above the contents pane allow you to switch between available phone features. Click Messages to split the pane in two, with all of your conversations in the pane on the left and the full history of the selected thread in the pane on the right, as shown in Figure 18-3.
Figure 18-3 The Messages tab gives you full access to every SMS/MMS conversation, complete with options to add animated GIFs and photos.
Note the search box at the top of the conversation list, which allows you to find specific text messages without a lot of scrolling. The icons below the reply box let you add emoji or animated GIFs or attach a photo to a message.
If you have a headset with a microphone connected to your PC, you can click the Calls tab and turn on the option to make and receive phone calls using your phone’s connection. You need to go through a brief setup process and turn on Bluetooth to enable this feature.
The Photos tab shows thumbnails of up to 2000 photos and screenshots from your phone. Click any photo to see it in the full app window, and use either the toolbar or right-click shortcut menus to open the photo for editing on your PC, save it as a local file, or share it using another app.
And speaking of apps, on devices that include the Link To Windows service, you’ll find an extra Apps tab, where you can open individual apps in a smartphone-sized window on your PC screen and work with them directly. Apps can be pinned to the Windows Start menu so you can open them without having to go through the Phone Link app.
Clicking the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the Phone Link app opens a Settings page where you can modify some interesting options. On the My Devices page, for example, you can connect a second phone so that you can switch between your work and personal devices. The Features tab in Settings has a bevy of options for controlling privacy features such as cross-device copy and paste and the ability to show photos and make calls from the PC. If you’re annoyed by the quantity of notifications from the phone arriving on your PC, you can temper them with settings under the Notifications heading.
Running Android apps on Windows 11
When Microsoft announced Windows 11, the company promised that the operating system would be able to run Android apps alongside apps written for Windows. That feature arrived in early 2022 in the form of a feature called the Windows Subsystem for Android. It’s an impressive technical achievement, but it also has significant limitations that make it more of a curiosity than a breakthrough.
The biggest limitation is that the Android subsystem doesn’t run the vast selection of apps from Google’s Play Store. Instead, it requires the Amazon Appstore, which has a far more limited selection. Figure 18-4 shows the Amazon Appstore running on Windows 11.
Figure 18-4 The Windows Subsystem for Android installs apps from the Amazon Appstore, which has a limited selection compared to the Google Play Store.
You’ll also find listings for Android apps, including Amazon’s Kindle reader and Audible audio-books player, in the Microsoft Store. Where you would normally see an Install or Get button, however, you instead see a Get From Amazon Appstore button. If the Windows Subsystem for Android and the Amazon Appstore app aren’t already installed, clicking that button begins the installation, as shown in Figure 18-5.
Figure 18-5 Compatible Android apps are listed in the Microsoft Store. Installing one of those apps also installs the Windows Subsystem for Android and the Amazon Appstore, if necessary.
The Windows Subsystem for Android runs only on Windows 11. Its hardware requirements are significantly more stringent than those of Windows 11 itself. In particular, it requires a minimum of 8 GB of RAM, with 16 GB recommended. In addition, the CPU requirements specify you must have at least an eighth-generation Generation Core i3, AMD Ryzen 3000, or Qualcomm Snapdragon 8c processor; that means you can’t install and run Android apps on a PC equipped with an 8th Generation Intel Core m3 processor, such as Microsoft’s Surface Go 2, for example.
And even if your PC meets the hardware requirements, not every PC can take advantage of this feature. The Windows Subsystem for Android feature is available only in select regions, including. (For the full list, see “Countries and regions that support Amazon Appstore on Windows,” at https://bit.ly/android-subsystem-support.)
The final requirement is that your PC must have the Virtual Machine Platform feature enabled. Note that this feature is available on any edition of Windows 11 and does not require Hyper-V. Although you can enable this feature manually by clicking the Virtual Machine Platform checkbox in the Windows Features dialog (Settings > Apps > Optional Features > More Windows Features), there’s no need to go to this trouble. When you attempt to install an Android app for the first time, the installer handles this task automatically, as shown previously in Figure 18-5.
The easiest way to install the Windows Subsystem for Android is to open the Microsoft Store, search for the Amazon Appstore app, and then click or tap Install. The installer runs an automated compatibility checker and, assuming your system passes muster, begins the installation process.
After setup is complete, any Android apps you install from the Amazon Appstore run in a window alongside Windows 11 apps and can be snapped into position or maximized the same way that Windows apps can. Figure 18-6, for example, shows the Kindle for Android app running alongside the Windows 11 Task Manager.
Figure 18-6 Android apps, like the Kindle app on the left, can run alongside Windows apps using the Windows Subsystem for Android.
Although Android apps and games run in windows that are identical to those of their Windows counterparts, you might notice some subtle differences. First, those apps don’t get their own listings in Task Manager. Instead, they run under a single background process that controls the virtualized Android subsystem, VmmemWSA. This process can consume a significant amount of memory and disk space (which explains why Microsoft recommends at least 16 GB of memory if you plan to run Android apps). In addition, the thumbnails for individual Android apps don’t show up as part of the snap layout options when you snap a Windows app into position. The workaround is to start by snapping the Android app into position first.
Because the Android subsystem runs as a virtualized container for Android apps, you can’t open it directly. You can, however, manage its behavior using the Windows Subsystem for Android Settings app, which is installed along with the core components of the subsystem and is available by clicking Start > All Apps. Figure 18-7 shows this app in operation.
Figure 18-7 To adjust resource usage for the Windows Subsystem for Android, use this Settings app, which is installed automatically along with the other Android components.
Two options on the System tab are worth calling out specifically here. Under the Subsystem Resources heading, choose As Needed if you want the Android subsystem to run only when it’s required. If you have ample system resources and you want Android apps to run immediately when called upon, choose the Continuous option instead. The large Turn Off button at the bottom of that page closes the Android subsystem and any running Android apps, freeing its resources immediately.
If, after experimenting with this feature, you decide it’s not for you, you can remove it from your Windows 11 PC. Open the Windows 11 Settings app, go to Apps > Installed Apps, and scroll down to the Windows Subsystem for Android entry. Click the three dots to the right of the menu entry and then click Uninstall. Note that uninstalling the Windows Subsystem for Android also uninstalls the Amazon Appstore and any Android apps you’ve installed.
Using the Windows Subsystem for Linux
Once, not so long ago, Windows and Linux were archrivals. As a free, open source alternative to Windows, the Linux operating system gave PC owners a choice, although they could only run one operating system at a time.
Eventually, Microsoft added support for Linux to its Hyper-V virtualization platform, giving Windows PCs the option to run Linux in a virtual machine within Windows. That configuration requires significant system resources, however, and effectively it creates a second PC running alongside Windows, with very little integration between the two environments.
That all changed in 2017, when Microsoft officially released the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). In 2019, Microsoft announced WSL 2, a newly architected version of WSL that runs the full Linux kernel in a highly optimized virtual machine, based on a subset of the Hyper-V architecture. WSL 2 uses relatively modest system resources and provides seamless integration between Windows and Linux. Although WSL 2 uses a virtual machine, it’s managed and run in the background, without requiring you to perform any configuration or management tasks.
WSL 2 is primarily a tool for developers who want the benefit of working in a Linux development environment while still taking advantage of productivity apps running on the Windows platform. You can run such command-line software as grep, awk, and sed, and you can run Bash scripts that rely on these utilities. You also can launch Windows binaries directly from a WSL command prompt and even run Linux graphical apps on Windows.
The simplest way to install WSL 2 is to open a PowerShell window with an administrator’s credentials and then issue this command:
wsl --installThat command enables all the features required to run WSL and downloads Ubuntu Linux. After restarting your PC, run the Ubuntu On Windows shortcut to complete the installation and set up your Linux user credentials in a Terminal window, as shown in Figure 18-8.
Figure 18-8 The primary operating environment for the Windows Subsystem for Linux is a Terminal window like this one.
We could devote an entire chapter to the inner workings of WSL 2 and barely scratch the surface. If you’re interested in exploring this feature further, we recommend starting at the official documentation pages at https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/wsl/about. There, you’ll find instructions on how to get started, a section of tutorials, details on how to change the default distribution, and much more.