How to Install Google Play Store on Windows 11 WSA?

Recently, Microsoft made it possible for Windows Insider Preview users to install Windows Subsystem for Android on their computers. Just like its brother, Windows Subsystem for Linux, WSA allows users to run Android apps natively on their computers. However, the term “Android apps” is rather ambiguous. This is because Microsoft only allows you to download and run apps that are available on the Amazon App Store. In addition to that, only selected apps are available on the Windows version of the Amazon App Store for now which means your choices are very limited. However, there is a workaround to that and you can get around to install the Google Play Store on your Windows 11 machine.

As it turns out, there is the option to sideload Android apps on your computer which allows you to install Android apps on your computer that are not available on Amazon App Store. However, one of the cons to that is that you cannot install apps that require the Google Play Store services. As such, the choices become limited again. However, thanks to ADeltaX on Twitter, you can modify the Windows Subsystem for Android that allows you to then install the Google Play Store on your computer. Once you have done that, you will be able to run any Android app on your computer.

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

Requirements for Installing Google Play Store on Windows 11

As is to be expected, to install the Google Play Store, you will have to go through several steps which include setting up different tools via the command prompt. Despite that, you do not have to worry at all as we will be going through each and everything in quite a detail so you just have to follow through carefully. You are going to need the following things to install Google Play Store:

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

Uninstalling Windows Subsystem for Android

As it turns out, to be able to run the Google Play Store, you will have to install a modified version of the Windows Subsystem for Android. Therefore, since you can’t run the modified and original versions of the Windows Subsystem for Android, you will have to uninstall the original from your computer. Follow the instructions down below to remove the installed WSA from your computer:

First of all, press the Windows key + I keys on your keyboard to open up the Windows Settings app.

Windows Settings
On the left-hand side, click on the Apps option.
On the Apps screen, click on the Apps and features option on the right-hand side.

Apps Settings
Once you have done that, search 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 the Uninstall button.

Uninstalling Amazon Appstore

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 the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on your computer. Installing WSL2 is pretty simple and can be done via a single command. In case you have already installed Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 on your computer, then you can skip this and jump to the next step down below. Otherwise, follow the instructions given down below:

First of all, open up the Start Menu and search for Command Prompt. Then, right-click on the result shown, and from the drop-down menu, choose the Run as administrator option.

Opening up Command Prompt as Admin
Once the Command Prompt window is open, type in the wsl –install command to install WSL2.

Installing Windows Subsystem for Android
After the installation has been completed, go ahead and restart your computer to finish setting up Windows Subsystem for Linux.
As your computer boots up, a command prompt window will open up automatically which will configure WSL. Once asked, provide a username and password.
Once you are through that, you have finished setting up WSL2 on your computer. Let us move on.

Enable Developer Mode on 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 enable you to install applications on your computer from any source. Follow the instructions given down below to do this:

To start, press the Windows key + I buttons on your keyboard to bring up the Windows Settings app.

Windows Settings
Then, on the left-hand side, click on the Privacy and Security option.
After that, click on the For developers option provided on the right-hand side.

Privacy and Security Settings
Finally, on the For developers screen, enable the Developer Mode by using the toggle provided.

Developer Mode Enabled

Downloading Windows Subsystem for Android

As we have mentioned before, to be able to run the Google Play Store on your Windows 11 machine, you will have to install a modified version of the Windows Subsystem for Android. To do this, you will have to first download the WSA package. Follow the instructions given down below:

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

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

Choosing Slow Option
Then, click the tick button provided.
Scroll down and look for the MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_1.8.32822.0_neutral_~_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle package.

Downloading Windows Subsystem for Android Package
The package version i.e. 1.8.32822.0 may differ in your case so don’t just copy-paste the name provided above. You will find this package at the bottom often.
Click on the package to start downloading it. In case you are not able to download it directly, click on the Keep option in the download menu.

Download Open GApps

Now, you have to download the Open GApps tool on your computer. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:

Head to the Open GApps’ website by clicking here.
Under Platform, choose the x86_64 option provided.
After that, select version 11 for Android.
Finally, for the Variant, choose the pico from the list and then click the download button provided to save it on your computer.

Downloading Open GApps

Download WSAGAScript

As it turns out, at this point, we will be downloading WSAGAScript on our computer which essentially is a script that is used to install Google Apps into a WSA image. Follow the instructions given down below to download the script:

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

Downloading WSAGAScript
Download the script to your computer.

Install 7-Zip

After downloading WSAGAScript on your computer, you are going to need to install 7-Zip to retrieve certain files from the various packages that we have downloaded until now. To do this, follow the instructions down below:

First of all, open up the official page for 7-Zip by clicking here.
Then, click on the Get button provided which will open it up in the Microsoft Store on your computer.

Installing 7-Zip
Finally, click the Get button again to install it on your computer.

Download Android Debugging Bridge Toolkit

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

Create Required Folders

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

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

Creating Folder
Do this process three times to create three folders.
Once you have 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.

Renaming Folders

Extract Files to WindowsSubsystemAndroid Folder

At this point, we are going to start the process of setting up everything to create a custom version of the Windows Subsystem for Android. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:

First of all, open up the Start Menu and search for 7-Zip File Manager. Open it up.

Opening up 7-Zip File Manager
Once the window is open, navigate to the folder where you have downloaded the Windows Subsystem for Android package.

7Zip File Manager
Double click on it to open it up.

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

Opening Windows Subsystem for Android Nightly Release
After that, press the Ctrl + A keys on your keyboard and then click the Extract button at the top.
In the dialog box that appears, copy and paste the C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\ path and then click OK.

Extracting Windows Subsystem for Android Package Files
Once you have done that, in the address bar of the 7-Zip File Manager window, copy and paste C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\ and then hit the Enter key.
After doing that, click on the AppxMetadata, AppxBlockMap.xml, AppxSignature.p7x, and Content_Type.xml files while holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard.
Then, click the Delete button at the top.

Deleting WSA Package Files
With this, you are done, and let us move on to the next step.

Extract Files to GAppsWSA Folder

Now, we will be extracting the WSAGAscripts files to the GAppsWSA folder which will allow us to modify the original version of the WSA. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:

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

Opening up 7-Zip File Manager
Then, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the WSAGAScript zip file earlier.
Open up the zip file and then navigate to the WSAGAScript-main folder.
Once you are there, click on the Extract button and then in the dialog box that appears, copy and paste the C:\GAppsWSA\ path.

Extracting WSAGAScript Files
After doing that, go ahead and navigate to the folder where you downloaded the Open GApps zip file.
Once you have located it, select the open_gapps-x86_64-11.0-pico-xxxxxxxx.zip file and then click the Copy button at the top.

Copying GApps Zip File
In the dialog box that appears, copy and paste the C:\GAppsWSA\#GAPPS\ path. Then, click the OK button.

Extract Files to ADBKit Folder

Finally, we are now going to extract the ADB files to the ADBKit folder. To do this, follow the instructions that are provided down below:

To start, open up the 7-Zip File Manager window.
Now, navigate to the folder where you downloaded the ADBKit zip file earlier and then open it up in the 7-Zip File Manager window.
Then, press the Ctrl + A keys on your keyboard and follow it up by clicking the Copy button at the top.

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

Copy WSA Image Files

Before we move on to modifying Windows Subsystem for Android, we will first have to copy some image files of WSA. To do this, follow the instructions down below:

First of all, navigate to the C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\ path in a File Explorer window.
There, copy the product.img, vendor.img, system_ext.img and system.img files.

Copying Image Files
After doing that, go ahead and move to the C:\GAppsWSA\#IMAGES folder.

Pasting Image Files
There, paste the copied image files, and you are done.

Modify Windows Subsystem for Android

After doing all of that, we are finally ready to modify the original version of the Windows Subsystem for Android and make our custom version to be able to install Google Play Store. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:

First of all, open up the Start Menu and search for Ubuntu. Right-click on the result shown and from the drop-down menu, choose the Run as administrator option.
This will launch the Windows Subsystem for Linux on your computer.
Once WSL is up, type in sudo su and hit the Enter key. Provide the password for your account and hit Enter again.
Now, you will have to change your current directory to GAppsWSA. To do this, type in the following command and hit Enter:
```
cd /mnt/c/GAppsWSA
```
Navigating to GAppsWSA Folder
After that, type in the following command to update the Ubuntu operating system:
```
sudo apt update
```
Once the operating system has been updated, you will have to install unzip and lzip tools. To do this, type in the following command:
```
sudo apt install unzip lzip
```
Installing Unzip
Follow it up by typing in the following command to install the dos2unix tool:
```
sudo apt install dos2unix
```
Installing Dos2Unix
Using apt-get or apt is the same thing, there is no difference.

Now, once you have done that, type in 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 UNIX format.

After doing that, type in 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 run the respective scripts.
Once you are done with that, go ahead and open up the File Explorer.
Navigate to the C:\GAppsWSA\#IMAGES path.
There, copy the product.img, system.img, system_ext.img and vendor.img files.

Copying Modified Image Files
Then, navigate to the C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid path.
Once you are there, paste the copied image files and click on the Replace the files in the destination option.

Pasting Modified Image Files
After doing that, navigate to the C:\GAppsWSA\misc path.
There, copy the kernel file and then navigate to the C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\Tools path.

Copying Kernel File
In the Tools folder, rename the existing kernel file to kernel_bak and then paste the copied kernel file.

Pasting Kernel File
With that, we are done with modifying the Windows Subsystem for Android and all that’s left is to install it. Let us move on.

Install Modified Version of 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. To do this, follow the instructions down below:

Open up the Start Menu and search for Powershell. Right-click on the result shown and choose Run as administrator from the drop-down menu.
In the Powershell window, copy and paste the following command and hit Enter:
```
Add-AppxPackage -Register C:\WindowsSubsystemAndroid\AppxManifest.xml
```
Installing Custom Windows Subsystem for Android
Once you have done that, Windows Subsystem for Android should now be installed on your computer.

Set up Google Play Store on Windows Subsystem for Android

At this point, we have successfully installed Windows Subsystem for Android on our systems. As it turns out, now, we are ready to finally set up the Google Play Store. To do this, follow the instructions given down below:

First of all, open up the Start Menu and search for Windows Subsystem for Android and then open it up.
In the Settings window, turn on the Developer mode by clicking the toggle switch.

Enabling WSA Developer Mode
After that, click the Manage developer settings under Developer mode.
Make sure that the Share my diagnostic data option is not checked. Then, click the Continue button.

Disabling Diagnostic Data
After that, click the Close button.
Now, open up the Start Menu and search for Command Prompt. Right-click on the result and choose Run as administrator from the drop-down menu.
Type in the following command to navigate to the ADBKit directory:
```
cd C:\adbkit
```
After that, type in the following command to connect to the Windows Subsystem for Android via ADB:
```
adb.exe connect 127.0.0.1:58526
```
Connecting to WSA via ADB
Once you have connected to WSA, type in adb.exe shell and hit the Enter key.
Follow it up by typing in su and then hit Enter key. This will give you root access.
Now, to make the Google Play Store work, type in setenforce 0 and hit the Enter key.

Enforcing Google Play Store
With that done, open up the Start Menu and search for the Play Store. Open it up.
Click the Sign-in button to log in to your Google account. Then, agree to the terms and you should be good to go.

Play Store Sign In

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

The post How to Install Google Play Store on Windows 11 WSA? appeared first on Appuals.com.