Overview

As more customers leverage either standalone Microsoft Intune or Microsoft Endpoint Manager for cloud management of their devices they also seek an efficient means to upskill administrators on Intune features and capabilities without the need to purchase devices upfront for testing.

Scenario

I recently delivered a workshop where attendees experienced the above issue with limited access to physical mobile devices which prompted me to further investigate an option for the administrators to emulate an Android device locally on their Windows 10 machine. In this post I am going to share the installation and configuration of the Android Studio software for emulation of Android devices.

Check out my colleague John Guy’s blog for instructions on how to setup an Android Emulator for MacOS: Setting up an Android Emulator for testing Intune features on Apple macOS – Azure Cloud & AI Blog

Installation

The Android Studio software is available for download from Android’s developer site:

https://developer.android.com/studio

For a review of the requirements before installation you can browse:

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator#requirements

Most notably disable Hyper-V features on the Windows 10 operating system, you can follow the below steps:

Browse to Control Panel
Select Programs and Features
Select Turn Windows Features on or off
Uncheck Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform, Windows Hypervisor Platform and Windows Sandbox

Select Ok
Select Restart Now

Once the download of Android Studio is completed, initiate the installation by selecting Run as administrator and follow the prompts to complete the installation. Modify settings as you require for your environment.

Create the Android Virtual Device

To create the Android Virtual Device (AVD) start by launching the AVD Manager tool from Android Studio:

Select Tools
From the drop down menu, select AVD Manager.

Select Create Virtual Device

Configure Select Hardware

Select Phone
Ensure Play Store option is available
Select desired screen size
Select Next

Configure the System Image

Select x86 Images
Ensure the target Operating System selected includes Google Play.

TIP – If you intend to test Conditional Access and Compliance Settings feature based on an older operating system version then select Android 9.0 (Google Play), alternatively you can select the Android 10.0 (Google Play) operating system.

3. Select Download to begin download of image file

4. Once the download has completed, select the image and click Next

Configure Android Virtual Device (AVD)

Provide a name for the Android Virtual Device
Select the screen orientation
Select Finish

Deploy more devices

After the initial AVD deployment is completed, you can deploy more AVDs by selecting the Duplicate option from the drop down menu.

Configure AVD internet connection

Configure the AVD Proxy Settings

Select …
Select Settings
Select Proxy. Configure as required for your environment

Enabe Wifi for internet connectivity

Enable AndroidWifi for internet connection
Disable Mobile Data if you have an onboard SIM on your host Windows 10 machine to avoid any additional charges