The common use case starts the program with Unlike conventional designs, there isn’t really a dedicated installer nor the program runs standalone. The launcher starts the WSA if it’s already ‘installed’ and ‘install’ it if it wasn’t. If a WSA was launched, it’d be closed and restarted (yes, it will interrupt the apps opened). So you basically trust the The Hyper-V virtual machine is really in The Windows start menu icons created by installing apps on WSA are launching the stub (App execution alias) to Specifically the syntax is It’d make sense to say if WSA displays nothing after successfully starting in the background, beginners won’t know where to start. It typically starts these<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you installed the WSA with KernelSU, a webpage with the docs about KernelSU pops up every single time you start the WSA, which is ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turns out it’s these lines (the Finish block) in Google Play app is usually created by WSA, but not the Android-Settings Android app and WSA-Settings Windows App. Disabling these above means I’ll have to make the icons to them since they are the starting points to managing the emulated Android system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you forget Windows Apps are different from Windows programs like I do, you should right click on the WSA-Settings Windows App and make a shortcut icon out of it to be used on the Windows Desktop or Start Menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Android-Settings Android app icon can be created from this command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since WSA doesn’t come with many apps. If you don’t want to login to your Google account to use Play store, you can download the APKs (say Apkpure) and sideload it with WSA Sideloader. It’s avaiable <\/p>\n\n\n\n As Windows App: https:\/\/apps.microsoft.com\/detail\/9nmfsjb25qjr?hl=en-US&gl=US<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nRun.bat<\/code> which is just a wrapper for the powershell script Install.ps1<\/code>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nInstall.ps1<\/code> script to do the right thing managing everything needed to get WSA up and running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Packages\\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe\\LocalCache\\<\/code> and everything is in userdata.*.vhdx<\/code> so there’s only one file to backup and restore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDirect Android App icons on Windows Start Menu<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
wsaclient.exe<\/code> located in %localappdata%\\Microsoft\\WindowsApps\\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe\\<\/code> <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nwsaclient \/launch wsa:\/\/{android application ID}<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAnnoying windows\/apps opened every time WSA (Run.bat) is started<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Install.ps1<\/code>‘s design decisions. I simply commented these nusiances out now that I know where and how to launch them when needed<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-2-1024x197.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCreating icons to Android apps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-4-1024x410.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n%LocalAppData%\\Microsoft\\WindowsApps\\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid_8wekyb3d8bbwe\\WsaClient.exe \/launch wsa:\/\/com.android.settings<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nWSA Sideloader<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wonghoi.humgar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-5-1024x242.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n