Is bluestacks safe? Is it Legal to use?

Before we start talking about BlueStacks is safe of not, we need to introduce the Android emulator concept for you at first.

The idea of an Android emulator was initially to use the emulator in testing, running different applications on the virtual system, or finding bugs on devices other than phones.

The android emulator allows the host, which is usually the computer system, to act like another HW or SW system that is used for various purposes.

BlueStacks App is computer software that works like an emulator, which gives you the ability to download, install, and run most of the mobile applications or games on your personal computer or your laptop.

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How does BlueStacks work?

The central role of BlueStacks is to run Android apps and games on Microsoft Windows or Mac.

After you install BlueStacks, it will set up to work with the social media platforms that you choose like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

BlueStacks is considered one of the most popular software for Windows and Mac. At first, the BlueStacks software was not the best option for running Android applications on PC.

Still, with the number of BlueStacks users increasing, the developers have put much more effort into making it as developed as it is today.

You can download BlueStacks on your Windows or Mac OS. BlueStacks aims to virtualize the Android operating system experience on PC.

The software’s basic features are free to download, install, and use. However, some advanced and optional features may require a monthly paid subscription.

BlueStacks Company says that its application would be capable of running more than 96% of the available applications at the Google Play Store.

To use the app and play games, you will need a mouse, keyboard, and touchpad controls.

You can customize the user interface of the BlueStacks software to match your needs from the app.

BlueStacks allows the user to run more than one application using the Multi-instance feature that enables the user to open multi windows using the same Google Play Store account or a different one.

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Safety Concerns-

Is BlueStacks Software considered safe and legal? Many users may suspect that BlueStacks or Android emulation software is not reliable somehow.

This may happen because some security antivirus apps like Avast may detect BlueStacks or other Android emulator executables a threat.

The majority of these reports ended being wrong, and even in those cases where the executable was infected, no evidence detected that the file was already infected when Bluestacks was installed.

However, it has been obvious that many of these reports are false. Even in the case that the executable files were infected, no file was found to be infected after the installation of BlueStacks.

Should I delete Antivirus software?

During Installation, BlueStacks usually asks to disable your Antivirus protection until the process is finished.

This step is only to ensure that your Antivirus software does not have over protection settings.

If you have extra protection enabled, it may show BlueStacks as a threat to your computer.

BlueStacks has been scanned by the most efficient security scanners, and it was found that there is no indication for malware infection.

Always download this software from the BlueStacks’s official website, as other sites may not be completely safe.

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Many websites warn people to stop using the software-

The issue was that to keep using the app, you have either to pay for the creators, or you download some applications.

This caused a lot of concerns for the users, which has increased the probability that the program may have contained some adware.

Moreover, one that makes the problem even worse is that the original BlueStacks software did not have an uninstaller included.

Also, the main folder of the program has no way to delete it as it was read-only, so the users could not do anything with the folder. 

Luckily, these problems and concerns had lasted for just a couple of months. The developers and creators of BlueStacks decided to let go of the approach of downloading and rating the program and made the software free.

This was a result of realizing that the old approach was going to stop them from more growth and development.

Most of the last versions included an uninstaller, and the folders are no longer read-only.

In brief, the Android emulator BlueStacks is entirely safe, and there is no evidence found for malware, adware, spyware, etc.

For now, you can go and download the software with no worries. However, it is completely your decision to download and install trusted apps from the Google Play Store.

Is BlueStacks is legal or not?

In general, Android emulators are not considered illegal because the operating systems like Android are available and considered as open-source.

Moreover, downloading, installing, and using apps on any device (emulator on PC, phone, tablet…etc.) is completely legal, and there is no problem in this as long as you appropriately use them.

So, BlueStacks is legal software that can be used without any problem.

To sum up, if you do not have an android device that you need to run Android Applications, it is not a problem anymore.

You need to download BlueStacks, which is a free Windows software that can handle popular applications and games like PUBG and Candy Crush while you work on Microsoft office in another window.

Although it is one of the most popular Android emulators, BlueStacks focuses mainly on promoting applications.

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Installation-

Like standard Windows apps installations, you have to run the EXE file and follow the steps.

Bluestacks needs at minimum 2GB RAM and a 9GB free space on the disk.

During the installation, it informs you that BlueStacks works best with and Access to App store and enabling the Applications Communications; you could uncheck these options if you want.

The App Store Access is a feature like it is obvious from the name, which gives the ability to connect to Google Play Store or Amazon App Store, which is previously installed by default along with Facebook, GamePop, and Twitter.

On the other hand, Application communications allow, by the privacy policy of BlueStacks, to contact you through text messages, notifications, or sending an email to you.

If you leave it enabled, there will be no spam emails from the company; anyway, you got the option to uncheck it.

The BlueStacks installation may take a while up to 20 minutes to initialize the program for the first time. During this period, BlueStacks suggests and shows to you some of the applications that they support like games and so on.

User Interface-

The user interface of BlueStacks is focused mainly on games, and this is very obvious when you see the program at the first launch.

You will not see the typical home screen of a regular Android phone system, but instead, you would see, as in other Android emulators, some applications that form up few rows, which most of them are games and some media and messenger apps.

The user of BlueStacks does not have the full experience of the Android OS, but it would appear like a customized windows application that displays the Android programs in full-size screen or windowed screen.

Though BlueStacks is, typically, an Android emulator that runs on 4.4.2 KitKat Android, it is more like an Android application launcher.

The customized home screen of BlueStacks is very confusing and misleading.

Firstly, it shows up to the user like all the applications are installed, and the user has access to them, but when he taps the app thumbnail, it takes him to Google Play Store, where the user can download and install the application.

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Common Problems with BlueStacks:-

The problem is that, from the app icons, the user cannot differentiate between the installed and which are some suggested apps.

To see all the applications which are already installed, you have to click on the button “All Apps” on the top row. The applications are organized in alphabetical order, and they cannot be grouped.

The worst thing here is that there is no way to arrange the home screen applications or remove the thumbnails.

When you start BlueStacks, you will always see these suggested apps, although you have no interest in playing such games.

When you click on the “More” button for an application category, a list of recommended applications pops up with a limited number of suggestions, instead of every app in this category that you could download.

To install one app that you do not have, you have to search by its name and go through the search results on the Google Play Store.

Otherwise, there is no direct link to browse the Google Play Store Apps.

So, this restricted and limited environment that BlueStacks provide makes a feeling that it is like the pushy salesperson marketing Android Games and Applications.

Touch-Screen and Keyboard Input

On the other side, however, it feels very much like you are on an Android platform when you run the applications with BlueStacks in the full-screen mode instead of windowed.

If you have multi-touch like touch screen tablet PC, you can contact support to complete this. Also, you can integrate sensors so you can do things like tilt moves in apps and games.

What if you do not have a touch-screen laptop?

The BlueStacks Android emulator was previously designed with the old non-touch-screen computer in mind.

The keyboard icon in the menu at the bottom of the bar provides the user with map tablet controls like zooming, tilting, swiping, and tapping keys.

Bugs

Unfortunately, the keyboard features for a mapping does not work very well. When using Google Earth through BlueStacks, there was some lag in zooming using the mapped key.

For example, when you play Temple Run, you may find that the mapping keys are reversed.

Also, some features seem to be useless, like rotating the screen when playing some games.

It is a bad idea to play Temple Run with a rotated screen and swipe-left to jump instead of going left. So, the setting is completely wired to be there.

Performance and Gaming         

In spite of these bugs, BlueStacks did the intended job of providing a good platform to play games fairly well, even on many old laptops.

Most of the games that were tried like Clash of Clans, Dragon Blaze, etc. runs well without any gitch.

It may take up to 45 seconds to start apps like Instagram in BlueStacks.

During testing some media apps, WhatsApp ran very well without problems.

Anyways you don’t need to run WhatsApp on BlueStacks for your PC because WhatsApp Web is now available.

However, the BlueStacks struggles in processing some photos on Instagram and opening some emails in Gmail.

Also, Google Earth has many lags and glitches, but this was expected as Google Earth requires high specifications to run appropriately.  

Anyway, the performance will be, in any case, limited by computer specifications, memory, and CPU.

BlueStacks would run best if there is no other program running alongside it.

The performance will be better when you try BlueStacks on a new computer or laptop with high RAM  6GB+.

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How to Speed Up Bluestacks?

As we have mentioned before, Bluestacks is an android emulator that makes users able to run android applications on personal computers and MAC OS.

It takes at least 2GB RAM on the personal computer and is very good for running games. However, some users have reported lagging in the software.

Here are some ways you can fix this problem-

•  You must customize the display settings that are best suited to your device.
• Set the graphics to 800×450 for low-end devices. To achieve this, go to the settings bar and choose the desired graphics.
• Now, Select OpenGL from the ‘Engine’ settings to minimize the lag. Set the CPU cores according to your personal computer.
• Allot maximum RAM to Bluestacks. From engine settings, select the Memory option and slide adjacent to 4096
• It allows Bluestacks to operate on whole hardware, which subsequently increases its efficiency. Restart the app.

If the above steps don’t fix the problem, then proceed with this-

•  Set the FPs to a maximum. Set the frame rate to 40 or 60 as per your PC.
•  If you have any antivirus applications, then disable your antivirus applications for an hour or till the next restart.
• Close any other background applications if the lagging still occurs.
•  Update your graphic card if necessary.
• Use the NVIDIA graphic card for the excellent working of the software.
•  Lastly, right-click on the left corner and go to the task manager. Then select Bluestacks, right-click on it, and set the priority to ‘above normal.’ Do not choose an option other than this because it will result in poor performance.

BlueStacks is free or paid?

The BlueStacks Android emulator software has some basic and free to download features that are available to the user.

If the user wants some more advanced optional features, this may require a monthly paid subscription.