How to run (not only install) an android application using .apk file?

Is there any command on cmd.exe that would allow me to start the main activity of a particular android application using the .apk file of that application. Please note that I know this command which only installs an android application:

adb install myapp.apk

This command will only install myapp onto the emulator and I have to manually run this application from the emulator (by performing single click on its icon).

What I want to do is use a command which not only installs the application but also starts its main activity (please note that I have only its .apk file so I don't know what the package name or any activity name is).

You can't install and run in one go - but you can certainly use adb to start your already installed application. Use adb shell am start to fire an intent - you will need to use the correct intent for your application though. A couple of examples:

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.Settings 

will launch Settings, and

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.browser/.BrowserActivity 

will launch the Browser. If you want to point the Browser at a particular page, do this

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -n com.android.browser/.BrowserActivity http://www.google.co.uk

If you don't know the name of the activities in the APK, then do this

aapt d xmltree <path to apk> AndroidManifest.xml

the output content will includes a section like this:

   E: activity (line=32)
    A: android:theme(0x01010000)=@0x7f080000
    A: android:label(0x01010001)=@0x7f070000
    A: android:name(0x01010003)="com.anonymous.MainWindow"
    A: android:launchMode(0x0101001d)=(type 0x10)0x3
    A: android:screenOrientation(0x0101001e)=(type 0x10)0x1
    A: android:configChanges(0x0101001f)=(type 0x11)0x80
    E: intent-filter (line=33)
      E: action (line=34)
        A: android:name(0x01010003)="android.intent.action.MAIN"
        XE: (line=34)

That tells you the name of the main activity (MainWindow), and you can now run

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.anonymous/.MainWindow

if you're looking for the equivalent of "adb run myapp.apk"

you can use the script shown in this answer

(linux and mac only - maybe with cygwin on windows)

linux/mac users can also create a script to run an apk with something like the following:

create a file named "adb-run.sh" with these 3 lines:

pkg=$(aapt dump badging $1|awk -F" " '/package/ {print $2}'|awk -F"'" '/name=/ {print $2}')
act=$(aapt dump badging $1|awk -F" " '/launchable-activity/ {print $2}'|awk -F"'" '/name=/ {print $2}')
adb shell am start -n $pkg/$act

then "chmod +x adb-run.sh" to make it executable.

now you can simply:

adb-run.sh myapp.apk

The benefit here is that you don't need to know the package name or launchable activity name. Similarly, you can create "adb-uninstall.sh myapp.apk"

Note: This requires that you have aapt in your path. You can find it under the new build tools folder in the SDK

This is a solution in shell script:

apk="$apk_path"

1. Install apk

adb install "$apk"
sleep 1

2. Get package name

pkg_info=`aapt dump badging "$apk" | head -1 | awk -F " " '{print $2}'`
eval $pkg_info > /dev/null

3. Start app

pkg_name=$name
adb shell monkey -p "${pkg_name}" -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER 1