Tips and Tricks to Run Android Emulator BlueStacks

The BlueStacks App Player is designed to enable Android applications to run on PCs running Microsoft Windows and Apple's macOS. This post summarizes some tips and tricks during I am testing this app. 

• Run Multi-Instance BlueStacks
• Configure BlueStacks to Use a Proxy Server
• Root BlueStacks
• Install Third Party CA Certificate into BlueStacks
• Proxy Software
• Could Not Start The Engine Issues I met
• References

Run Multi-Instance BlueStacks

Configure BlueStacks to Use a Proxy Server

1. Start BlueStacks. (It has to be open before running the utiity). If you have multiple instance, it has to be the default master one.
2. Open a Windows command prompt.
   • (eg. hit +R → type cmd → hit Enter )
3. Change to the BlueStacks program folder.
   • (eg. cd C:\Program Files\BlueStacks )
4. Run HD-ConfigHttpProxy.exe :

Usage:

     HD-ConfigHttpProxy.exe set <host> <port>      connect to specified proxy
     HD-ConfigHttpProxy.exe reset                  reset/stop using proxy

For example: HD-ConfigHttpProxy.exe set 192.168.2.236 8080

5. When prompted, close and re-open BlueStacks.

Alternatively, you can specify other proxy protocols by including it in the <host> in standard syntax. For example, I used socks://localhost and my custom port number. It took a couple tries but it worked eventually.

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To disconnect / reset BlueStacks proxy settings :

1. Make sure BlueStacks is running
2. Open a command prompt
3. Run command: C:\Program Files\BlueStacks\HD-ConfigHttpProxy.exe reset
4. Close and re-open BlueStacks.

Root BlueStacks

BlueStacks Tweaker
Steps:

1. Stop BlueStacks Instance

2. Unlock stopped BlueStacks Instance

3. Start BlueStacks Instance. Patch, Install SuperSu, Update Su binary buttons might be not activated

4. Close BlueStacks Tweaker and Start it again

5. Those buttons should be up.

6. Press Patch, Install SuperSu, Update Su binary buttons

7. Install Root checker Pro to verify it has been rooted. 

Install Third Party CA Certificate into BlueStacks

Install Root Certificate Manager (Root)

It has to be rooted to use import function. 

Here is a screenshot when I were trying to import Burpsuite CA certificate". You might need to install a file manager. I were using RS File Manager to find out imported cert. 

After you imported Burpsuite cert, there will be no more cert warning message if you are using BurpSuite as your proxy server after you made that HD-ConfigHttpProxy.exe proxy change. 

Proxy Software

Profiler PE:

ProxyCap:

Could Not Start The Engine Issues I met

• An error message might appear after loading, informing you that BlueStacks "Could not start the Engine" as shown below.

Run following command from a privileged command line window

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="BlueStacks Service" dir=in action=allow remoteip=10.0.2.0/24 localport=2860-2892 protocol=TCP enable=yes

After following the above steps, the Hyper-V compatible BlueStacks should load without any issues on your computer.

YouTube

References

• Step-by-Step: Using BlueStacks AppPlayer From Behind a Proxy