We all live in the digital age, where technology does not stand still. If until recently, portable phones seemed like miracle inventions, now it’s hard to imagine a middle-aged man without a smartphone or tablet. What can I say, almost every student has them. The popularity of such electronics is not at all surprising, because gadgets have become for us simply indispensable assistants in many aspects of life. Need an Internet connection? He is always at hand. Calculator, flashlight, calendar, alarm clock, organizer? Now all this is the contents of one small device.
Electronic assistants
Such devices have many functions, for which they were called "handheld computers." Indeed, many useful and necessary functions are partially borrowed from the usual stationary PCs. Of course, there are still a sufficient number of areas of human activity where only computers are used. But otherwise, gadgets may well replace them. Among them, it is worth highlighting those that are running the Android OS. This operating system reveals the full potential of the device. All its users know firsthand about the democracy and functionality of Android. A huge advantage of this OS can be considered support for most mobile applications. But what about people who do not have mobile devices? In this case, the Android emulator will come to the rescue. Today we’ll talk about one of the most downloaded and used emulators called BlueStacks 2. You will learn about its direct purpose and main features. We will also figure out what to do if BlueStacks is not supported on your device.
Android emulators - what is it and why are they needed?
Emulators (another name - simulators) are special programs created so that you can install mobile applications designed for the Android OS. Roughly speaking, it is an independent operating system inside another operating system. By installing one of these applications on your computer, you will get a full-fledged interface of the mobile operating system. Previously, to perform such manipulations, the user needed to have certain knowledge in the computer field and load the emulator, which is part of the Android SDK developer, or use a virtual machine. All this made the process of installing a mobile application on a computer rather cumbersome, long and complicated. However, with the advent of BlueStacks 2, everything has changed. This program has a simple and intuitive interface, and it does not take a lot of effort to download it. With it, you can launch your favorite mobile applications directly from your PC. You can download the program directly from the official BlueStacks website. The application is not supported on your device? Then the emulator will also come to the rescue. After all, even though you have a gadget, some applications may not be supported by it. For example, an outdated version of Android or inappropriate device specifications. Let's talk more about installing BlueStacks on a computer.
Install and run the BlueStacks emulator
As mentioned above, the boot file can be downloaded for free from the official site. The installation process itself is not much different from other programs for Windows. The program feels great on Windows 7, but it’s also suitable for XP, although the functionality will be slightly cut. During installation, the program will make a request for independent downloading of files from the Internet, in order to avoid future problems it is better to prohibit it. Be prepared for the fact that the installation process will be lengthy, yet it is an independent shell. At this time, it is better to leave the computer alone and not load the system with additional tasks.
How does the emulator behave on weak computers?
You will also be warned that the program may be inefficient for some applications. For example, if you own a weak laptop or netbook, be prepared for the fact that the emulator can slow down. If you see a message stating that BlueStacks is not supported on your device, most likely, the technical specifications of your computer do not allow you to install this emulator. This problem may occur with the adaptation with Windows 8 or 10. If a specific application from BlueStacks is not supported on your device, maybe you do not have enough software to run this particular program. So, some applications require access to the camera, accelerometer, navigation, and so on, but this will not happen on a PC. BlueStacks on Android is good only for regular applications that work without additional connections.
BlueStacks is not supported on your device
Back to the finicky apps. Many users mistakenly believe that if an application or any game can run on a smartphone or tablet, then they will work on a computer for a long time. After all, a priori a PC is much more powerful and has much better memory. However, the application may simply not start due to the fact that you have a weak computer. Most often this happens with 3D games, but unpretentious 2D should work with a bang. I would like to note that to use BlueStacks you need to get a Google account. Next, just find the application in the Play Market (Google Play) and install it.
Additional features
A distinctive feature of BlueStacks is that you can receive notifications from applications in the same way as in the mobile version. A new notification appears in the taskbar. In addition, you can synchronize with the gadget and install the same applications that are already installed on your tablet or smartphone.