If you have installed the Android SDK but find the emulator hopelessly slow (even on a fast PC) then this might just make your day. It did mine; in my adult nerdhood I am easily pleased.
Install the Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM):
- Start the Android SDK Manager by right-clicking and seleting Run as administrator (you’ll only need to run as administrator if you installed the SDK in a restricted location such as /Program Files, like I did – doh!).
- Tick Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator (HAXM) under Extras and install.
- Make sure your chosen platform has Intel x86 Atom System Image installed.
Check your configuration in the AVD Manager:
- Set your CPU/ABI to Intel Atom (x86).
- Tick Use Host GPU for faster graphics (display problems can occur so I have un-ticked this for now).
If you try running the emulator now you will get the following error:
emulator: Failed to open the HAX device! emulator: Open HAX device failed HAX is not working and emulator runs in emulation mode
To fix this you simply need to run the installation program for HAXM:
- Goto ..android-sdk/extras/intel/Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager.
- Run the program haxm-windows_r02.exe.
You should now find that your Android Emulator runs a lot faster!
See you soon…on www.workbootsnerd.com