Other Anyone tried Microsoft's Android Emulator?

moster67

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ac9ts

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Requires Win8.1 Pro 64-bit and a PC that supports Hyper-V (none of which I have)
 
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Peter Simpson

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Hello @moster67,
I'm now using Visual Studio Emulator for Android only because after upgrading to Windows 10 the only package on my development laptop that started working slowly was Genymotion, that was because Oracle VM VBox has issues with Windows 10 for myself and a lot of other users online. I did finally get Oracle VM VBox working correctly'ish but it was not how it used to be, so I then tried Visual Studio Emulator for Android and then started using it as the replacement for Oracle VM VBox. Visual Studio Emulator for Android works absolutely perfect with B4A and dam is it quick, I usually use an actual device for developing on but now and again on rare occasions I will use an emulator just because it's another option for testing screen sizes. Google's emulator is shite, Genymotion is a lot better, but Microsoft's emulator solution is even better and wow is it fast. I like the tools button option on the right of the emulator, it has some nice neat features like the accelerometer, location information for GPS, network information, manually setting the emulators battery level etc. Yes Genymotion has some of the previous mentioned features, but MS just does it better, hey did I really just say that

The only thing I don't like about VSE4A is that it appears to start at API 17, but I might be missing something. I also had to reboot my laptop when I first installed it, VM would not start, typical M$.

Anyway below we have everything working in perfect harmony
B4A 5.02(1)
Windows 10 Pro
Visual Studio Emulator for Android
App created in B4A and working great in M$ emulator
 
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susu

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I currently use AMIDuOS on my Dell Venue 8 Pro with Windows 8.1 and I have to say it's perfect.
It's super fast. I give it to my friend and tell him "this is my new Android tablet", he plays with it for a while and he can't realize that it's just a emulator
Another good points:
- It supports 3D acceleration so you can play 3D game smoothly.
- It can use camera, sensors, GPS... of my device.
- It can install Google Play Store so that you are freely to get any app on store.
- It uses your hard disk as storeage so you can quickly cut and paste files from/to emulator.
- It supports one click install app. So just right click on your apk and select install. Boom! Your app appears in AMIDuOS.
- It's from AMI (American Megatrends), famous company that made BIOS for many motherboards.

One not-so-good point:
- It's not free. You need to pay $9.99 after 30 days of trial. But believe me, it's worth.

Of course, I'm not their saleman, I just want to share a helpful product to all of Android lovers

Check it here http://www.amiduos.com/
 
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Anser

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I tested B4A and my app on Microsoft Emulator. It looks neat and clean and once it is booted everything runs fast on the Microsoft Android Emulator.

On the Tools menu, there is an option for "Location" ie you can set a Location. I thought that doing so will allow my app to use the FusedLocationProvider on the Emulator, unfortunately it does not work. May be its because the Libraries for Google Play Services are not available on the Microsoft emulator. Anyway this does not work on Google emulator too.

As per Microsoft's Q&A site

Question : "Emulator fails to run app that uses Google Play Services"
Answer : "The emulator does not ship with the libraries for Google Play Services. However, the emulator does support drag-and-drop installation of flashable zip files."

As of now, I am unable to run the app that makes phone calls, however my app works fine on the Google Android emulator ie the dialer will be initiated.
On the Google Android emulator, it shows the SIM network signal, unfortunately on the Microsoft's emulator, it says no mobile network. I may have to figure out what is wrong here.

As of now, it is working on my PC with Windows 10 (64 bit) and 4GB RAM, but I had to stop lot of other background apps like DropBox, iTunes etc to get the Microsoft Emulator to work. Prior to that, when I tried to start the Microsoft Android emulator, it was throwing error saying that there is not enough memory for the Virtual Machine blah blah blah etc. Even though the Microsoft Emulator is running fine, my PC is too slow now. I may have to increase the RAM to 8GB.

Just wanted to share my experience here.

Regards
Anser
 
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b4auser1

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Does MS use images from AVD to create virtual devices ? Does It support Android 5.0, Android 5.1, Android M ?
 
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DonManfred

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incendio said:
How do you get that price? I just downloaded and it says $15 after 30 days.
Click to expand...

You shoud read all and carefully

BTW: The price has changed

so he is talking about the price of amiduos which is 15 after 30 days...

Seems the price has changed in the last days
 
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susu

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Last time I bought, it was $9.99. Maybe its sale is so good so they changed the price up.
 
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Javier Campo Martinez

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Greetings !!!! i wanna use this emulator. How can i configure it in B4A ...? I'm a VS.NET developer too, so i'm very interested.
Thanks in advance, and best regards.
 
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Peter Simpson

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Javier Campo Martinez said:
Greetings !!!! i wanna use this emulator. How can i configure it in B4A ...? I'm a VS.NET developer too, so i'm very interested.
Thanks in advance, and best regards.
Click to expand...
WHY???

That post is 6 years old. you are better off using a real device. If like me on the odd occasion you need to use an emulator, then you should use AVD which you can get to in the IDE > Tools > Run AVD Manager...
 
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Javier Campo Martinez

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Peter Simpson said:
WHY???

That post is 6 years old. you are better off using a real device. If like me on the odd occasion you need to use an emulator, then you should use AVD which you can get to in the IDE > Tools > Run AVD Manager...
Click to expand...
Hmmmm i have spent 4 years trying to configure an emulator via AVD Manager, i suppose i'm intelligent but it hasn't worked for me. I've followed the documentation but i haven't had results. I found this post and i'd like to explore this approach. That's all. Anyway, excuse me if i sound stupid. But this is what forums exist for. Thanx in advance.
 
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OliverA

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Javier Campo Martinez said:
I found this post and i'd like to explore this approach. That's all
Click to expand...
Please note that AMIDuOS has been discontinued (see Reddit post below) and Microsoft now recommends to use AVD Manager (see the top of the page linked below) instead of their solution. The one alternative non-AVD solution left seems to be Genymotion. With Genymotion, at minimum, you need to set up an online account with them.

Links:

Android Emulator Setup - Xamarin

The Android Emulator can be run in a variety of configurations to simulate different devices. This guide explains how to prepare the Android Emulator for testing your app.
visualstudio.microsoft.com

Genymotion - Android Emulator in the Cloud and for PC & Mac

Genymotion is Number One Android Emulator in the Cloud with integrations for testing framework and CI servers. Also available for PC & Mac.
www.genymotion.com
 
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