• Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) comes with the Amazon Appstore. But there is a way to remove it and install the Google Play Store with WSA.
  • WSABuilds is an open-source project that adds Play Store to Windows 11 in a few clicks.
  • The second method uses WSL to patch the WSA image with Google Play Store.

Enable Windows Hypervisor and Virtualization

Both the methods mentioned in the list require you to turn on Windows Hypervisor and Virtualization. To do so, follow these steps.

  1. Click Start and start typing “Windows features.” Click to open the first search result which reads “Turn Windows features on or off.”
Turn Windows Features on or off - 1
  1. A new window with a list of features with checkboxes should pop up.

  2. Check the following boxes — Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform, and Windows Hypervisor Platform.

enable virtualization features - 2
  1. Once enabled, restart your Windows PC and the features should now be enabled.

  2. To check if Virtualization has been enabled, open the Task Manager using the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Esc, and go to the performance tab.

  3. Click on CPU and check the Virtualization option. It should display “Enabled.”

Virtualization enabled in task manager - 3
  1. If Virtualization is disabled, boot into the BIOS , and look for “ Virtualization Technology,” and enable it. On some computers, it’s also called “Intel VT-x” “AMD-V” or “SVM Mode”.
Enable Virtualization in BIOS - 4

Method 1: Installing Google Play Store Using a WSA Script

One of the quickest ways to get Play Store running in Windows 11 is through the WSABuilds project on GitHub. It’s an open-source project that allows you to install Windows Subsystem for Android on both Windows 11 and Windows 10 with Google Play Store and Magisk. Here’s how to install it on Windows 11:

  1. If you already have the official WSA installed, you will need to remove it first. You can do that by searching for Windows Subsystem for Android in Windows search and clicking “Uninstall” in the right pane.
Uninstall Windows Subsystem for Android from windows 11 - 5 WSA build with google play store - 6
  1. Once downloaded, right-click and extract the compressed folder . We’d suggest extracting the folder using 7-Zip or PeaZip as using WinRAR and Window’s built-in file extraction tool throws a bunch of errors.
Open zip with PeaZip - 7
  1. Once extracted, all you need to do is go inside the extracted folder -> right-click -> open Terminal here, and enter the following command.
PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Install.ps1
  1. The installation will then start and Windows Subsystem for Android with Google Play Store will launch very soon.
Installing WSA on windows 11 using powershell - 8
  1. Once it launches, go to the “Apps” section, click the three dots beside Google Play Store, and click “Open.”
Open Play Store on windows 11 - 9
  1. Sign in to your Google account and voila! You now have fully-fledged Google Play Store and Google Play Services running on Windows 11.
Running Google Play Store on windows 11 - 10

Method 2: Install Google Play Store using Windows Subsystem for Linux

  1. The next important step is to uninstall Windows Subsystem for Android from your PC if you have already installed it from the Microsoft Store.
Uninstall Windows Subsystem for Android - 11
  1. Next, you need to set up WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) on your Windows 11 PC, which you can do by following our guide. You can install Ubuntu , Debian, or OpenSUSE based on your preference. WSL 2 is required as it enables us to locally generate the modified Windows Subsystem for Android image.
Install WSL on windows 11 - 12

Generating WSA Image With Play Store Support

  1. Launch Ubuntu (or whichever distro you have installed) as Administrator by opening the Start menu, searching “Ubuntu,” and clicking on “Run as Administrator” in the right pane.
Open Ubuntu as Administrator on windows 11 - 13
  1. After that, open the MagiskOnWSALocal GitHub page linked here, click Code and Copy the URL .
Clone the repository from github - 14
  1. Move back to the WSL Terminal and run the following command . Paste the URL you copied above after git clone . This will copy the files in the repository to your computer.
git clone https://github.com/LSPosed/MagiskOnWSALocal.git
Clone the repository teminal process - 15
  1. Next, run the following commands to get into the “scripts” directory .
cd MagiskOnWSALocal/scripts
Cd into the scripts folder - 16
  1. Run the script by executing the following command. This will download the required dependencies and start the command-line installer. Depending on your internet speed, this should take around 5 to 10 minutes.
./run.sh
Run run sh to install all dependencies - 17
  1. A command-line installer will open up. Choose “ x64 .” You can navigate the options by pressing the space key and hitting enter to choose.
Choose x64 - 18
  1. After that, choose “retail” as it’s meant for the stable channel.
Choose Retail - 19
  1. Under the Magisk version, we’d suggest sticking to the “ Stable ” release.
Choose Stable - 20
  1. In the next step, choose “ Yes ” as you want to install Google Play Store on Windows 11.
Install Gapps Yes - 21
  1. Select “ OpenGApps ” as it’s one of the oldest, widely-known projects.
Types of Gapps selection - 22 Keep or remove amazon store - 23
  1. You can then select if you want to root WSA with Magisk . If you don’t want to, choose “none”.
Root or no root - 24
  1. Select “ No ” when asked if you want to compress the output.
Compress or not compress - 25
  1. Finally, WSA will start downloading. This will take anywhere from 10-15 minutes so sit back and relax.

  2. Once done, you will see something like this in the Terminal. It’s time to advance to the next step, i.e., to manage the files and bring up the Google Play Store.

WSA image patching process - 26

Managing Windows Subsystem for Android Files

  1. Open File Explorer and move to the “ Linux ” directory from the left pane. You should see a folder with the name of the distribution you’ve installed, which in our case is Ubuntu.
Manage files in Ubuntu on windows - 27
  1. Navigate to home -> [Ubuntu username] folder -> MagiskOnWSALocal -> output . Find a folder that starts with the name WSA and double-click to open it.
Go to WSA folder in Linux on windows 11 - 28
  1. Copy the contents of the folder.
Copy contents of WSA Magisk - 29
  1. Open the C drive on your Windows 11 PC and create a folder named “ WSA .”
Create a Folder WSA in C drive - 30
  1. Paste the copied content inside the “WSA” folder.
Place copied content inside the folder - 31

Installing Google Play Store on Windows 11

Pat your back because you’ve come a long way. It’s time to install Google Play Store on Windows 11.

  1. Go to Start and search “developer” without quotes. Click the first search option.
developer settings windows 11 - 32
  1. Turn on the “ Install apps from any source, including loose files ” toggle under the Developer Mode section. Choose “Yes” if prompted.
Turn on Developer mode on windows 11 - 33
  1. Open Start and search for “ Powershell “. Click “Run as Administrator” in the right pane.
Open Powershell as admin - 34
  1. To move to the WSA folder , execute the following command in PowerShell
cd C:\WSA
Get into WSA folder - 35
  1. Once inside the folder, run the following command. This should start installing the modified WSA image with Google Play Store support on Windows 11.
PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\Install.ps1
Use the command to enable Play store - 36
  1. Once done, open Start and you should find a “ Play Store ” icon. If it does not appear, search for “play store,”and you may find it.
Google Play Store - 37
  1. Launch the Play Store app on Windows 11, and it should work without issues. We suggest you signing in with a secondary Google account to be on the safer side.

And that’s how you can install Google Play Services and other Google frameworks with WSA in Windows 11. We comprehensively tested out both the methods by installing apps and testing Google services, and everything worked flawlessly. However, if you encounter issues do let us know in the comment section below.

Abubakar covers Tech at Beebom, with his passion for technology tracing back to 2011 when he received a Dell Inspiron 5100 as a gift. He’s also a passionate advocate for the right-to-repair movement, believing in empowering users to maintain and extend the life of their devices. Outside the tech world, he enjoys watching anime and exploring his newfound enthusiasm for Japanese cars. In his free time, you’ll often find him immersed in Genshin Impact or researching his next gadget purchase. Before joining Beebom, he contributed to leading publications like Android Police, How-To Geek, and Fossbytes.

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