RIP to the Windows Subsystem for Android, which goes away in 2025

Enlarge / Little Android guy, how did you get in there? (credit: Ron Amadeo)

Microsoft is pulling support for the Windows Subsystem for Android, a Windows 11 feature first released in October of 2021 that allowed Windows PCs to run Android apps alongside native Windows apps. The company says that PCs currently running Android apps will still be able to run them but that the feature will be deprecated and all support will end after March 5, 2025.

Microsoft’s notice also implies that the Amazon Appstore and all Android apps will disappear from the Microsoft Store sometime between now and March 2025, though as of this writing, it is still available to install, albeit with a warning message about the 2025 end-of-support date.

The Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) was a follow-up of sorts to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), a Windows 10-era feature that allowed users to run Linux command-line tools and scripts and Linux apps from within Windows without setting up a virtual machine, dual-booting, or connecting to a remote PC running a separate OS. Both subsystems relied on virtualization capabilities built into modern hardware and software to blur the lines between Windows and the alternate operating system.