How to install ADB and install Android Apps from computer

Hello everyone and welcome to Technologysage. Today I am going to show you How to install ADB and install Android Apps from a computer. There is much you can use your computer for. You can install Android applications and even perform an Android system update through ADB. ADB is Android Debug Bridge in full. This enables your Android smartphone to communicate with your computer and specifically the PowerShell or CMD commands. This means there are more you can do to your smartphone hands-off with CMD and power shell.

Today we are not going to go into many details but we can do that some other time in our upcoming articles so, I would suggest that you stay tuned and read more of our upcoming articles that will be featuring these topics about ADB. Today I am going to solely focus our interest on How to install ADB and install Android Apps from a computer. With ADB installed on your Windows computer, you will be able to perform ADB commands with ease. Android Debug Bridge comes already built into your smartphone. Your Windows computer will not be able to communicate with the Debug Bridge on your phone if this feature is not enabled. You can also read our article on How to Solve MTK S_BROM_DOWNLOAD_DA_FAIL (Error 2004) on SP Flash tool. Before I proceed, I have to tell you some of the things you can do with Command Prompt or power shell using ADB.

  • You can install a firmware update on your from ADB or PowerShell.
  • You can access fast boot and boot to fast boot or remove fast boot on your Android phone.
  • You can Reboot your phone
  • You can install Android APK Files on your phone from your computer.
  • Reboot your phone into recovery.
  • Root Android smartphones with ADB
  • Reboot your phone to bootloader

How to install ADB and install Android Apps from Windows computer

To start you up, the first thing you need to start with is by getting the required tools ready. You need to download ADB tools and drivers ready. You can Download ADB tools here from this link. After you have downloaded the ADB tools, Extract the zip file in a file in drive C and name it ADB. It is from this ADB folder that you will be launching your CMD or PowerShell commands.

After you have successfully downloaded and successfully extracted your ADB tools, open the ADB folder you have extracted. Press the ‘shift’ button on your keyboard and the right click on your mouse. On the options, you will see ‘Open command window here.’ Some computers give the PowerShell option. But it is ok both of them should work just fine. Click on that option and a command prompt window will open with ADB.

C:\Users\Mr. Abala\Pictures\adb 1.PNG

Now, until here, you are done with installing ADB on your Windows PC. But still, you will not be able to carry out ADB operations without having your phone to sync with ADB on your computer. To connect your phone, first, you should first enable USB Debugging on your phone. To do this Go to your smartphone’s settings, scroll down to ‘About phone.’ In newer Android version you will see ‘System.’ Go to ‘built number’ and then double tap it several times until you see ‘You are a developer.’ Now go back to the settings and now scroll down you will see ‘Developer’s options’ Select it and enable ‘USB Debugging’.

Now, having enabled USB Debugging on your Phone and your Command prompt or PowerShell now standing in wait, it is time to connect your phone to your PC via USB cable. The moment you connect your phone, You will get a pop up on your phone to allow USB debugging. Check the box for ‘Always allow this computer’ and then click OK.

C:\Users\Mr. Abala\Pictures\allow-usb-debugging.png

On the command prompt, enter: adb devices and hit enter button. You will see a certain code, sort of a serial number… this is an indication that your phone has been connected and you can start giving commands.

C:\Users\Mr. Abala\Pictures\ADB 2.PNG

As seen from the screenshot above, Your device is loaded up and it is ready to receive ADB Commands. Now all you have to do is key in the ADB commands for CMD or PowerShell to execute on your phone. The following are the commands you can enter into CMD or PowerShell to perform your ADB functions

ADB Commands

  • adb devices – This command will show the adb devices connected. Just as shown above.
  • adb reboot – reboots your phone
  • adb reboot bootloader – reboots your phone to bootloader
  • adb reboot – reboots your phone
  • adb root – restarts the adb daemon with root permissions
  • adb remount- remounts the /system partition on the device read-write

There are many more other commands you can execute with adb. You can find out from online

Installing apps and installing firmware with ADB with command prompt

As I said earlier, you can install apps from your computer to your Android without having to physically do it on your phone the normal way. To do this just enter adb install <path to the apk on your computer> the path you are installing your APK file from should be a system disk. Which is always disk C/: unless you installed your OS in a different partition. For example, to install say, WhatsApp apk, you will enter this command adb install/downloads/Whatsapp.apk this command will install WhatsApp apk on your phone. You can do this and install many other apps provided you know what path they are from.

To install firmware is also based on almost the same principle. Instead of ‘install’ as in the case of apk, you will use ‘sideload’ and then the path. But you need to have your update.zip firmware in your ADB folder first. Mostly the firmware installed by ADB is OTA firmware. Many OTA firmware is pushed to the phone directly by manufacturers and therefore they are not an easy thing to come by online. But you can search the internet and might get lucky for some people have put them on their websites by chance. To install the firmware, enter this command into CMD or PowerShell: adb sideload<file name you of the firmware> then click the enter button.

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I am a tech enthusiast with a passion for all things mobile phones, computers, software, games, and general technology tricks, tweaks & Mods. I pride in sharing this knowledge through blogging.