How to Install and Set Up Android Emulator in Cursor Without Android Studio

January 26, 2026

If you’re using Cursor or Visual Studio Code for Flutter or Android development, you may notice that the AVD Manager is missing when Android Studio is not installed. This guide shows you how to install the Android SDK manually and set up an Android Emulator without Android Studio—a lightweight, faster option for developers.

Step 1: Download the Android SDK Command Line Tools

Instead of Android Studio, use Google’s Command Line Tools Only package.

Visit the Android Command Line Tools Download Page
Download the version for your operating system.
Save the file to your Downloads folder.

Step 2: Extract and Set Up the SDK

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run (replace the file name if different):

powershell

Expand-Archive -Path "%userprofile%\Downloads\commandlinetools-win-11076708_latest.zip" -DestinationPath "C:\Android\Sdk\"

(New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\Android\Sdk\cmdline-tools\latest\" -Force | Out-Null) 
Move-Item -Path "C:\Android\Sdk\cmdline-tools\*" -Destination "C:\Android\Sdk\cmdline-tools\latest\"

Step 3: Install Java 17 or Higher

Check your Java version:

java -version

If it’s Java 8, Java 11, or older, update to Java 17+:

Restart the terminal and confirm:

java -version

Step 4: Enable Virtualization

Check virtualization status:

systeminfo | find "Hyper-V Requirements"