The virtual hard drive will be used to store the Android operating system and all content downloaded to the VM, so size the virtual drive accordingly. Sizing and naming the Android virtual machine's drive. Select the the Fixed Sized button from the bottom of the Storage on a physical hard drive window and click Continue to continue to the virtual hard drive section of installation. Make sure the VDI radio button is selected from the Hard drive file type menu and click the Continue button. Look towards the center of the Hard Drive menu and select the radio button that's located to the left of the Create a virtual hard drive now button and click the Create button from the lower right-hand-corner of the menu. Name the machine whatever you'd like, select Linux from the Type drop-down menu, and select Other (32-bit) from the Version drop-down menu.Ĭlick the Continue button from the lower right-hand side of the menu to continue the installation process.Ĭhoose how much memory you'd like to allocate by using the slider that is located towards the center of the window or by typing it into the text-box located on the right-hand side of the window. Keep in mind that the virtual machine will run like a stand-alone Android device, so it's best to allocate 1GB or more of memory to the virtual machine. You will be prompted to give the new virtual machine a name, and to select the type of virtual machine, and its version of software. Giving the new virtual machine a name and selecting its type. Look towards the upper left-hand corner of the application and click on the blue New button. Navigate to the Applications folder and launch Virtualbox. Setting Up an Android Virtual Machine Creating a new virtual machine in Virtualbox. I'll be installing the Android 4.4 for x86 RC2 in this tutorial because it is, at the time of writing this tutorial, the most recent version of Android for x86.
Best free virtual machine for android install#
Do this by navigating to the Android for x86 website and finding the version of Android you'd like to install from the list of ISOs.
Run the Virtualbox.pkg package and follow the on-screen prompts to install the app on the Mac.ĭownload Android for x86, a modified version of Android that's developed to run on Intel-based computers. To start, download Virtualbox for OS X, free of charge, and open the downloaded image.
Best free virtual machine for android how to#
In order to run a full install of Android on a Mac, you'll need to set up and install an Android virtual machine.Īnd though there's a ton of virtualization software available for the Mac, I'll you how to create an Android virtual machine using Virtualbox, a free open-source piece of virtualization software by Oracle. Luckily, because Android is open source, it can be run on just about any device, including a Mac. Android is a popular mobile operating system that has a wide library of apps, some of which are useful on the desktop.