Install Chrome Os On Pc In 2022 And Enjoy Android And Linux Apps
So that is how you can install Chrome OS on PC and get all the perks including Google Play Store and Linux support. I tested Chrome OS on my decently-specced Windows laptop and it was simply flying without any hiccup. The performance difference was amazing, to say the least. To learn more about the advantage of Chromebooks over Windows laptops, you can go through our in-depth article.
And in case, you have made your mind to stick with Chrome OS then make sure to take advantage of Linux apps. Its pretty good and works like a charm. Also, if you miss Windows apps then you can use Wine to run Windows apps on Chrome OS. Anyway, that is all from us. If you are facing any problem while installing Chrome OS on your PC then comment down below and let us know. We will surely try to help you out.
How To Install Chromeos Flex On Your Old Laptop Or Macbook
After creating the bootable USB, head over to your old PC or MacBook on which you want to install ChromeOS Flex. Insert the USB drive into a spare USB slot, then power on your computer. You’ll need to boot using the drive instead of the hard disk. Depending on how old the machine is, you might need to jump into the BIOS settings for this.
On Macs, hold down the Option key after pressing the power button to bring up the boot manager. Select ChromeOS Flex from the boot menu to proceed with the installation.
Make sure to back up all crucial data from the drive, as it will be wiped clean while installing Chrome OS Flex.
Install Cloudready On The Pc That You Want To Convert
In this third and final step, you will be booting your old computer from a USB drive, instead of booting normally. You can learn more about USB boot procedure by reading this article: How to Boot Windows 10 Computer From USB Drive
Please note that all files on your old computer including its operating system will be deleted during this installation. Hence, you may want to make a backup of the files on your computer and keep a Windows Recovery Drive handy, just in case you decide to go back to Windows OS.
3.1. First, Turn Off the computer that you want to install CloudReady on.
3.2. Insert the CloudReady USB installer into the USB port of the computer.
3.3. Now Boot your computer from its USB drive. This requires you to Power on the computer while tapping either F9 or F12 Key as required for booting your computer from a USB Drive.
Note: The special key that you need to tap or hold for booting your computer from its USB drive varies from computer to computer. You need to find out the right key for your computer by checking on the manufacturers website.
3.4. After CloudReady USB installer has finished starting, you will see a network configuration page. You can ignore this screen for now As you do not need to configure networking before installing CloudReady.
3.5. Next, click on the Clock located at the bottom-right corner of the CloudReady interface and click on Install CloudReady.
3.8. In this case, click on the first option Install CloudReady Standalone.
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Prepare Your Usb Drive
How To Install Chrome Os On Any Pc And Turn It Into A Chromebook
Chris Hoffman
Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He’s written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times and Reader’s Digest, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami’s NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times—and that’s just here at How-To Geek. Read more…
Want to turn any old computer into a Chromebook? Google doesnt provide official builds of Chrome OS for anything but official Chromebooks, but there are ways you can install the open-source Chromium OS software or a similar operating system.
These are all easy to play with, so you can run them entirely from a USB drive to try them out. Installing them on your computer is optional.
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How To Install Chrome Os On Any Windows Laptop Or Pc
Chrome OS is undoubtedly the fastest Operating System for desktop computers. It is light, easy to use and also not too resource-hungry like Windows or Mac. This makes it a great OS to install on your old PCs and Macs which lags and drains the battery.
On top of that, you can have additional benefits like unlocking your computer using your Android phone and seamlessly switching devices while browsing. But the official Chrome OS which Google uses on their Pixelbooks is not available for everyone to download. As there are also some hardware requirements that only Chromebooks have.
How to install Chrome OS on any PC or Laptop
Though we cannot install Chrome OS, we can install the Open-source software Chromium OS which anyone can install, modify and use it in the way they like. But it requires some technical expertise. Thankfully we have many developers that modified the Chromium OS and made it easy to install.
Among them, two of the best Chromium OS forks are Neverwares Cloud Ready and Flints Fyde OS.
What Can We Do With Chrome Os Flex
Chrome OS Flex offers largely the same functionality as Chrome OS. We can play games via Stadia, Xbox Cloud, and Nvidia GeForce Now.
Sadly we cant play Steam Link games, unlike on an official Chromebook device. The reason for this? Chrome OS Flex lacks Android app compatibility, and official Steam support . We can still use the major cloud game streaming services, so we dont lose out on gaming.
If you largely use online services, such as Googles Drive, Documents and email services, then Chrome OS Flex will feel just like any other Google device.
Makers and coders can use Chrome OS Flex to create electronics projects with devices running Adafruits CircuitPython. The device will appear as a USB drive, and we can write code directly to the device.
Streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+ and YouTube will all work as expected, after all we are using a Google Chrome browser.
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Install Chrome Os Clone Of Cloudready Via Usb
For the installation, you will need a USB stick with a size of at least 8 GB of storage space. Then download the CloudReady USB Maker from the download page of the home edition of CloudReady. This will create a bootable USB stick and download an image of CloudReady onto it. The USB Maker requires at least Windows 7 to run.
With this stick, you can later boot the system and use it as a live system or install it permanently.
The manufacturer also offers a ready-made image of CloudReady for download. You can also copy this image as a BIN file with other tools such as RUFUS, Etcher also on a USB stick and make it bootable.
Remove Chrome Os Flex And Reinstall Windows On Pcs
If you wish to go back to Windows and uninstall Chrome OS Flex, well, you can easily do so. We have written a detailed tutorial on how to delete Chrome OS Flex and reinstall Windows 11/10, so follow our guide for step-by-step instructions. You need to create a bootable USB drive for Windows and install it on your PC. Note that following this process will wipe the data stored on your hard disk, so make a backup beforehand.
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Boot Into Chrome Os Without An Installation
The great thing about Chrome OS is that you dont need to install it, and it doesnt take any space on your hard drive. You can boot it right from the USB without installation, so your primary OS wont be affected. You can set up your Chrome OS with a Google account and use it only for surfing the internet.
Use Etcher To Install The Chromium Image
You have done most of the preparation by now. Your Chromium is downloaded and extracted, and the USB is formatted, so you are ready to continue. Download Etcher using the link provided above. Here is what you have to do from there:
The creation process takes a few minutes to complete. When its done, wait for Etcher to verify that everything works as expected. You are now ready to install Chromium on your PC.
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The Perfect Stepping Stone To A Proper Chromebook Or Chromebox
So what if ChromeOS Flex doesnt support Android apps and perhaps never will? The original vision behind ChromeOS is that its lightweight and designed to run on the web. Instead of installing programs like you do on Windows, Mac, most of the services people use these days are available online, which is what Chrome OS was designed for.
At the same time, you can also get quite a lot done on ChromeOS Flex as you have full access to Googles online collaboration tools and they also work offline. As such, you can edit documents in Google Docs, work on spreadsheets in Google Sheets and put together and present all of the presentations you make in Google Slides.
Since ChromeOS Flex is free and likely always will be, its a great jumping off point for those considering making the switch to ChromeOS. A kind of try it before you buy it situation but without any limitations on key features.
If you enjoy using ChromeOS Flex, you can always upgrade to a Chromebook or even to a Chromebox down the line if you want access to Android apps and the Google Play Store, full Linux support and the ability to run Windows in a virtual machine.
For most people though, theyll be more than happy enough to be able to get some extra use out of their old devices which are no longer officially supported or were just too slow to use comfortably before.
How To Create A Bootable Chromeos Flex Installation Drive
You can now use the Chromebook Recovery Utility to create a bootable ChromeOS Flex USB drive for installation purposes.
You’ll need an 8GB or higher storage pen drive. Plug the storage drive into your PC and ensure the device is connected to the internet during the process.
Depending on your internet speed and the pen drive read/write speed, this process can take a while.
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How To Install Chrome Os Flex On Your Windows Pc Laptop And Macbook
Google announced Chrome OS Flex in February 2022 to breathe new life into aging Windows PCs and older MacBooks. We have already written a detailed guide on how to install Chrome OS with Play Store support on a PC, but its based on Project Brunch, and the installation process is a hassle. However, with Google now supporting third-party hardware, Chrome OS Flex stands out with its seamless installation process and longer support window. I tried the Chrome OS beta build earlier, and it worked like a charm. And now with the stable build of Chrome OS Flex, things are looking even more impressive. So if you wish to learn how to install Chrome OS Flex on your old MacBoooks, Linux PCs, and Windows laptops, follow our detailed guide below.
You Choose: Trial Run Or Full Install
One of the best features of ChromeOS Flex, though, is that you can run it off a USB flash drive or SD card to test it out first without completely overwriting your current OS. For the best performance, it’s not recommended to run Flex from a flash drive full time, but it will let you see if it’ll work for your needs.
Installing ChromeOS Flex is quick and painless. The first step is to gather everything you need:
- A USB thumb drive or SD card 8GB or larger
- A Windows, Mac or Linux computer to install ChromeOS Flex on
Note that installing ChromeOS Flex will completely erase your entire hard drive. Any important files should be backed up first. You’ll also need a ChromeOS, Windows PC or Mac device with the current version of the Chrome browser installed. This will be used to create the ChromeOS Flex USB installer and it doesn’t need to be the same device you plan to install it on. The thumb drive will also be completely erased when creating the installer.
To run ChromeOS Flex, the target laptop will need to be Intel or AMD x86-64-bit compatible , have 4GB RAM or more, have at least 16GB of storage and you’ll need full administrator access to the BIOS. Once you’ve got everything needed, it’s time to create the USB installer.
In the Recovery Utility, instead of selecting a model to recover, you’ll select ChromeOS Flex.
When the installer is done, your USB drive or SD card are ready to use to run or install ChromeOS Flex.
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The Perfect Move To A Proper Chromebook Or Chromebox
So what if ChromeOS Flex doesnt support Android apps and probably never will? The basic vision behind ChromeOS is that it is lightweight and designed to run on the web. Most of the services people use these days are available online, rather than having to install programs like you do on Windows, Mac, for which Chrome OS was designed.
Plus, you can do a lot more on ChromeOS Flex as you have full access to Googles online collaboration tools and they work even offline. As such, you can edit documents in Google Docs, work on spreadsheets in Google Sheets, and put together and present all the presentations you make in Google Slides.
Since ChromeOS Flex is free and always will be, its a great jumping off point for those considering switching to ChromeOS. Give it a try before buying one of a kind but without any limit on key features.
If you enjoy using ChromeOS Flex, you can always upgrade to a Chromebox or even a Chromebox if you want access to Android apps and the Google Play Store. , Full Linux support and the ability to run Windows in virtual machines.
For most people though, they will be quite happy to be able to get some extra use out of their older devices that are no longer officially supported or were previously too slow to use comfortably.
Requirements To Install Chrome Os Flex
1. A USB pen drive with at least 8GB or more storage.
2. Windows PC with an Intel or AMD x86-64-bit processor. ARM processors are not supported yet.
3. At least 4GB RAM or more.
4. Internal storage must be 16GB or more.
5. Check if your computer is certified to run Chrome OS Flex here. If your PC is on the list, you are good to go. In case your model does not appear in the list, do not worry. You can still proceed with the installation. Chrome OS Flex works even on non-certified PCsas weve tested below, its just that some of the functionalities might be limited. Over time, Google will add more computers to its certified list.
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