Windroid — Android Subsystem for Windows

Ye Olde Descriptioun

Herken well, gentle reader, and learn what manner of engine this be.

Once did the House of Microsoft grant unto folk a wondrous thing, whereby the small applications of the Droid might dwell upon the Windowed desktop; but in the year of our Lord 2025, on the fifth day of March, they did strike it down and cast it out from their Store, and the people were left wanting. Windroid is the answer of the commons to that unkindness.

The working of it is thus. Within thy machine there is builded a small and thrifty chamber (a Subsystem for Linux, as the learned name it), and within that chamber is set a true Android of the Lineage, penned like an honest beast in its stall by the keeper called Waydroid. Yet the beast is not seen in its stall; for a cunning glass named WSLg taketh each application by its own likeness and casteth it forth upon thy desktop as its own window, which thou mayest drag, stretch, minish and close as any program. Their names are writ into thy Start Menu, all gathered in one coffer marked Windroid, and whatsoever new app thou dost install shall place itself there also, unbidden.

Know moreover that the common kernel of the machine hath no knowledge of binder, that strange tongue in which all Androids speak unto themselves. Therefore have we forged a kernel anew, with that tongue granted unto it, and it is laid down beside the others without harm to any. And lest thou be left with an empty chamber, there ride within the installer a market-stall (Aurora), a browser (Fennec of the Firefox), a keeper of files, and the Settings of the Droid itself, that thou want for nothing on the first day.

Two roads lead in: a Setup of the wizardly sort, which first examineth thy machine and telleth thee plainly whether it be wise to proceed and whether a restarting shall be required; or a zipped coffer, for they that prefer the older ways. Either road may be retraced, for the uninstaller putteth all things back as they were.

Here endeth the olde descriptioun; what followeth is plain moderne speech.

Android apps in individual resizable windows on the Windows 11 desktop, launchable from the Start Menu, installed with one command. A community replacement for the retired Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA). Comes preloaded with Aurora Store (Google Play catalogue, anonymous sign-in), Fennec (Firefox), Material Files and Android Settings — all in one Start Menu → Windroid folder, where every app you install also lands.

Grab either from the latest release — same installer engine underneath, pick your style:

Requirements: Windows 11 (x86-64), virtualization enabled in firmware, ~15 GB free disk, 8 GB RAM minimum. If a restart is requested (first-time WSL enablement), reboot and run the installer again — it resumes where it left off. Nothing is downloaded during install; everything ships inside.

• WSL2 provides the lightweight utility VM;
• WSLg provides per-app windows, Start Menu shortcuts, clipboard, audio;
• Waydroid provides the Android (LineageOS-based) container;
• Windroid provides the four missing pieces: a binder-enabled WSL2 kernel, a prebaked distro image, a one-command installer, and the Windows tray/CLI integration layer.

Full rationale and the phase-by-phase plan: docs/PLAN.md. Decisions and rejected alternatives: docs/DECISIONS.md. What deliberately doesn't work: docs/known-limits.md.

Status: v0.1.0 — first working release, tested on one machine. Android 13 (LineageOS 20) runs in per-app resizable windows on real Windows 11 hardware: custom binder kernel ✅, multi-window direct to WSLg ✅, Start Menu entries ✅, Windows→Android Downloads sharing ✅, preinstalled app suite ✅, cold start 17.1 s / warm launch 2.5 s / install 63 s ✅, uninstall returns the machine to its prior state ✅ (Docker Desktop coexists throughout).

Caveats worth knowing before you install: the full test matrix (Intel + AMD, 8 GB machines, iGPU-only, several Windows 11 builds) has not been run — this is proven on one i9/NVIDIA laptop. Graphics are software- rendered. The installers are unsigned, so SmartScreen will warn. Every fix and gotcha behind the build is logged in docs/SPIKE.md (findings F1–F17).

Windows 11 (build 22000+) with virtualisation enabled, x86-64 CPU, 8 GB RAM (16 GB recommended), ~15 GB free disk, WSL ≥ 2.4.4. SSD strongly recommended — see docs/known-limits.md for what 8 GB/HDD machines can expect. Windows 10 and Windows-on-ARM are not supported in v1.

Start with docs/PLAN.md — the working agreements at the top are binding, especially: never invent paths, flags, prop keys, or config names. Verified upstream values live in docs/UPSTREAM-FACTS.md with sources; anything marked UNVERIFIED there must be confirmed on a real machine before automation depends on it.

Milestones: M0 spike proven → M1 CI artifacts boot on a clean VM → M2 one-command install/uninstall clean → M3 perf budgets met across the test matrix → M4 polish → v1.

Build the distributables yourself (needs a Linux WSL distro for the image build, and Inno Setup for the wizard):

sudo rootfs/build.sh --flavour vanilla --out dist   # prebaked distro image
kernel/build.sh --from-uname                        # binder-enabled kernel

then scripts/make-manifest.py, scripts/make-dist.ps1 (zip) and scripts/make-setup.ps1 (wizard exe).

MIT for the Windroid glue — see LICENSE. Bundled upstream components keep their own licences, listed in NOTICE.md. Google Apps images are never redistributed here.