How to Install Google Play Store on Windows 11

Recently, Microsoft made it possible for users of Windows Insider Preview install Windows Subsystem to Android on their computers. Like its brother, the Windows Subsystem for LinuxWSA allows users to run Android applications natively on their computers.

However, the term “Android apps” is quite ambiguous. This is because Microsoft only allows you to download and run apps that are available in the Amazon App Store. On top of that, only select apps are available in the Windows version of the Amazon App Store for now, meaning your options are very limited. However, there is a workaround for that and you can to install Google Play Store on your machine with Windows 11.

Can you install Google Play Store on Windows 11?

It turns out that there is an option to sideload Android apps to your computer, which allows you to install Android apps on your computer that are not available in the Amazon App Store.

However, one of the disadvantages is that you cannot install applications that require the services of Google Play Store. As such, the options become limited again. On top of this, thanks to ADeltaX on Twitter, you can modify the Windows Subsystem for Android which allows you to then install the Google Play Store on your computer. Once you've done that, you'll be able to run any Android app on your computer.

Before we begin, it is important to mention that the process ahead of us may be tedious for some, as it is lengthy. However, once you have managed to get it working, all the effort is worth it. With that being said, let’s get started and show you how to install Google Play Store on Windows 11 Subsystem for Android.

Requirements to install Google Play Store on Windows 11

As expected, to install Google Play Store, you will have to follow several steps that include setting up different tools through the symbol of the system. Despite that, you don’t have to worry at all as we will be going through each and every one of them in quite a bit of detail, so you just need to follow it carefully. You will need the following to install Google Play Store:

• Windows subsystem for Linux
• Windows Subsystem for Android
• 7-Zip or any other extraction software
• OpenGApps
• WSAGAScript
• Android Debug Bridge

Uninstalling Windows Subsystem for Android

It turns out that in order to run the Google Play Store, you will need to install a modified version of the Windows Subsystem for Android. So, since you can't run both the original and modified versions of the Windows Subsystem for Android, you will need to uninstall the original from your computer. Follow the instructions here to remove the installed WSA from your computer:

• First, press the Windows key + the keys I on your keyboard to open the application Windows settings.

• On the left side, click on the option Applications.
• Now, on the Applications screen, click on the option Applications and features On the right side.

• Once you've done that, look for Amazon Appstore via the search bar provided.
• After that, click on the three dots next to Amazon Appstore and from the drop-down menu, click on the button uninstall.

Installing Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

Now that you have removed the original Windows Subsystem for Android from your system, it is time to install Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on your computer.

Installing WSL2 is quite simple and can be done using a single command. In case you have already installed Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on your computer, you can skip this and move on to the next step below. Otherwise, follow these instructions given here:

• First, open the start menu and search Symbol of the system. Then, right-click on the result that is displayed and, in the drop-down menu, choose the option Run as administrator.

• Once the command prompt window is open, type the command wsl -install to install WSL2.

• Once the installation is complete, go ahead and restart your computer to finish setting up the Windows subsystem for Linux.
• As your computer boots up, a command prompt window will automatically open that will configure WSL. Once prompted, provide a username and password.
• Once you're done, you're done setting up WSL2 on your computer.

Enable developer mode in Windows 11

After installing Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on your computer, it is time to enable Developer Mode on your computer. Doing this will allow you to install applications on your computer from any source. Follow the instructions given here to do this:

• To start, press the Windows key + I buttons on your keyboard to open the application Configuring Windows.

• Then on the left side click on the option Privacy & Security.
• After that, click on the option For developers which is on the right side.

• Finally, on the For Developers screen, enable the Developer mode using the provided switch.

Download Windows Subsystem for Android

As we mentioned earlier, in order to run the Google Play Store on your Windows 11 machine, you will need to install a modified version of the Windows Subsystem for Android. To do this, you will first need to download the WSA package. Follow these steps to get it:

• First of all, go to site website rg.adguard by clicking on  this link.
• On the website, choose ProductId from the drop-down menu provided.

• After that, copy and paste 9P3395VX91NR in the search box.
• Next to the search box, choose the option Slow in the drop-down menu.

• Then click on the button check provided.
• Scroll down and look for the package MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_1.8.32822.0_neutral_ ~ _8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle.

• The version of the package, i.e. 1.8.32822.0 may differ in your case, so don't just copy and paste the name provided above. You'll find this package at the bottom.
• Click on the package to start downloading it. In case you are unable to download it directly, click on the option Conserve in the download menu.

Download Open GApps

Now, you need to download the Open GApps tool on your computer. To do this, follow these steps given below:

• Go to the Open GApps website by clicking here.
• In the Platform, choose the option x86_64 provided.
• After that, select the version 11 to  Android devices.
• Finally, for the Variant, choose the peak from the list and then click the download button provided to save it to your computer.

Download WSAGAScript

It turns out that at this point we will download WSAGAScript to our computer, which is essentially a script which is used to install Google Apps in a WSA image. Follow these tips given below to download the script:

• First, head over to the repository GitHub clicking here.
• Once you are there, click on the drop-down menu Code and choose the option Download ZIP provided.

• Download the script to your computer.

Install 7-Zip

After downloading WSAGAScript to your computer, you will need to install 7-Zip to recover certain files from the various packages we have downloaded so far. To do this, follow these recommendations below:

• First, open the official 7-Zip page by clicking here.
• Then click on the button Get which will open in the Microsoft Store on your computer.

• Finally, click on the button Get again to install it on your computer.

Download Android Debug Bridge Toolkit

Finally, the last thing you will need on your computer is the Android Debug Bridge, which is also known as ADB Platform Tools or SDK. To download the toolkit, simply click on  this link and then click the button Download to begin the download process. Once you're done with that, it's time to start setting everything up.

Create required folders

Now that we are done with the tedious process of downloading all the necessary tools, it is time to start setting everything up. For this, you will create three folders on your system partition, which is usually the C: drive. To do this, follow the recommendations given below:

• First, open the File Browser on your computer.
• On the left side, click on the option This PC.
• Then open the system partition which by default is the drive C:.
• Once you are there, right click anywhere and from the drop down menu choose New> Folder.

• Repeat this process three times to create three folders.
• Once you've done that, right-click on one of the newly created folders and from the drop-down menu, choose Rename.
• Name the folder WindowsSubsystemAndroid.
• Now again right click on another folder and choose Rename from the menu.
• Name this folder GAppsWSA.

• Finally, rename the last folder to ADBKit.

Extract files to WindowsSubsystemAndroid folder

At this point, we're going to start the process of setting everything up to create a custom version of the Windows Subsystem for Android. To do this, follow these steps:

• First, open the start menu and search 7-Zip FileManager. Open it.

• Once the window is open, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the package Windows Subsystem for Android.

• Double click on it to open it.

• Then double click on the package Wsa-Package-[version]-Release-Nightly.msix. Here, [version] is where you will see the version of the downloaded WSA package.

• After that, press the Ctrl + A keys on your keyboard and then click the button Extract on top.
• In the dialog box that appears, copy and paste the path C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\ and then do click en OK.

• Once you've done that, in the address bar of the 7-Zip File Manager window, copy and paste C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\ and then press the key Enter.
• After doing that, click on the AppxMetadata, AppxBlockMap.xml, AppxSignature.p7x files y Content_Type.xml while holding down the key Ctrl on your keyboard.
• Then click on the button Delete on top.

• With this, you are done and we can move on to the next step.

Extract files to GAppsWSA folder

Now, we will extract the WSAGAscripts files to the GAppsWSA folder which will allow us to modify the original version of WSA. To do this, follow these simple steps:

• First, open the window of the 7-Zip File Manager.

• Then, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the zip file WSAGAScript previously.
• Open the zip file and then navigate to the folder WSAGAScript main.
• Once you are there, click on the button Extract and then in the dialog box that appears, copy and paste the path C:\GAppsWSA\.

• After doing that, go ahead and navigate to the folder where you downloaded the file zip OpenGApps.
• Once you have located it, select the file open_gapps-x86_64-11.0-pico-xxxxxxxx.zip and then click the button Copy on top.

• In the dialog box that appears, copy and paste the path C:\GAppsWSA\#GAPPS\. Then click on the button Accept.

Extract files to ADBKit folder

Finally, we are now going to extract the ADB files to the ADBKit folder. To do this, follow the steps that we will provide below:

• To get started, open the 7-Zip File Manager window.
• Now, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the zip file ADBKit above and then open it in the 7-Zip File Manager window.
• Then press the Ctrl + A keys on your keyboard and keep clicking the button Copy on top.

• In the dialog box that appears, copy and paste the path C:\ADBKit\ .

Copy the WSA image files

Before we move on to modifying the Windows Subsystem for Android, we will first need to copy some WSA image files. To do this, you need to do the following:

• First, navigate to the route C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\ in a File Explorer window.
• There, copy the files product.img, vendor.img, system_ext.img y system.img.

• After doing that, go ahead and go to the folder C:\GAppsWSA\#IMAGES.

• There, paste the copied image files and you're done.

Modify the Windows subsystem for Android

After doing all that, we are finally ready to modify the original version of the Subsystem. Windows for Android and make our custom version so you can install Google Play Store. Make sure to follow these simple steps so you can get it:

• First, open the Start menu and search for Ubuntu Right-click on the result displayed and from the drop-down menu, choose the option Run as administrator.
• This will start the Windows Subsystem for Linux on your computer.
• Once WSL is active, type sudo su and press the key Enter. Provide your account password and press Enter again.
• Now, you will need to change your current directory to GAppsWSA. To achieve this, you must type the following command and press Enter:

cd /mnt/c/GAppsWSA

• Keep typing the following command to install the tool dos2unix:

sudo apt install dos2unix

• Usa apt-get or apt is the same, there is no difference.
• Now, once you've done that, write the following commands one by one:

dos2unix ./apply.sh

dos2unix ./extend_and_mount_images.sh

dos2unix ./extract_gapps_pico.sh

dos2unix ./unmount_images.sh

dos2unix ./VARIABLES.sh

• To give you an understanding, the above commands will convert the respective scripts to the format UNIX.
• After doing that, type the following commands one by one:

./extract_gapps_pico.sh

./extend_and_mount_images.sh

./apply.sh ./unmount_images.sh

• Entering these commands will simply execute the respective scripts.
• Once you're done with this, go ahead and open the File Browser.
• Navigate to the route C:\GAppsWSA\#IMAGES.
• There, copy the files product.img, system.img, system_ext.img y vendor.img.

• Then navigate to the route C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid.
• Once you are there, paste the copied image files and click Replace files in the option of final destination.

• After doing that, navigate to the route C:\GAppsWSA\misc.
• There, copy the file from the kernel and then navigate to the route C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\Tools.

• In the Tools folder, rename the file kernel existing at kernel_bak and then paste the file kernel copied.
• With that, we are done with modifying the Windows Subsystem for Android and all that is left is to install it.

Install the modified version of the Windows Subsystem for Android

Now that we have a modified version of the Windows Subsystem for Android, it is ready to be installed on the system. Make sure to follow these steps so that you can get this modified version:

• Open the Start menu and search for Powershell. Right click on the result displayed and choose Run as administrator in the drop-down menu.
• In the Powershell window, copy and paste the following command and press Enter:

Add-AppxPackage -Registry C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\AppxManifest.xml

• After that, click Manage settings from the developer in Developer mode.
• Make sure the option Sharing my diagnostic data is not checked. Then click the button Continue.
• After that, click on the button Close.
• Now, open the Start menu and search for Symbol of the system. Right click on the result and choose Run as administrator in the drop-down menu.
• Type the following command to navigate to the directory ADBKit:

cd C:\adbkit

After that, type the following command to connect to Windows Subsystem for Android via ADB:

adb.exe connect 127.0.0.1:58526

• Once you have connected to WSA, type adb.exe shell y press the key Enter.
• Keep writing su and then press the Enter key. This will give you access to root.
• Now, to get Google Play Store working, type setenforce 0 y press the key Intro.
• Once this is done, open the start menu and search Play Store. Open it.
• Click at the button Start session to sign in to your Google account. Then, accept the terms and you're ready to go.

Once you have followed all the instructions above, you should now have Google Play Store up and running on your computer. You can use it to install any Android app on your computer, have fun!