Chrome Operating System Download

Have an old Windows laptop at home and don’t know what to do with it? You’ll learn today how to turn it into a Chromebook by installing on it Chrome OS for free and voila, now you have a new and fun computer. We will be downloading and installing an Operating Sustem called CloudReady, which is a free version of Chromium OS (similar to Chrome OS, used on Chromebooks). The installation steps are similar for a laptop or a desktop computer.

  1. Download the Operating System. Simply download the OS here.The file is less than 700 MB in size. Note that there is a 64 bit and a 32 bit version. Depending on the computer type you want to install Chrome OS, select the version you need.
  2. Chromium OS is an open-source project that aims to build an operating system that provides a fast, simple, and more secure computing experience for people who spend most of their time on the web. Here you can review the project's design docs, obtain the source code, and contribute.

Download the Operating System

Simply download the OS here. The file is less than 700 MB in size. Note that there is a 64 bit and a 32 bit version. Depending on the computer type you want to install Chrome OS, select the version you need. If you are not sure if the computer is a 64 bit or 32 bit, simply Google your computer brand and number (usually printed on the front or back) followed by “specks” word and you’ll find the details there.

If you decide to install Chrome OS on the old rusty laptop you didn’t used since years, chances are that it is a 32 bit computer.

Chrome Operating System free download - Google Chrome (64-bit), System Mechanic Free, Google Chrome Portable, and many more programs. The Chrome OS installer will need an active internet connection to download some libraries and dependencies. After that, open the “Home” folder on the desktop and move to the “File System” tab.

Things You’ll Need to Install Chrome OS

  1. An old laptop or a desktop PC where to install Chrome OS
  2. A 8GB or 16GB USB stick to create the installer
  3. A Mac, Windows PC or Chromebook running Chrome browser
  4. An internet connection (since we are installing a browser based OS)

Installation Process

  • Unzip the downloaded Chrome OS zip file
  • From your Chrome browser, navigate to this link and install (click on the Add to Chrome) the Chromebook Recovery Utility extension.
  • Navigate to your Apps page in Chrome browser and the Chromebook Recovery Utility will show up there.
  • Launch the App and click on the “Get started” button.
  • Locate the gray gear icon in the top right and select “Use local image”
  • Now select the unzipped OS file and follow the onscreen instructions.
  • When prompted, insert the 8GB or 16GB USB stick into your computer.
  • You have now successfully created the USB installer.
  • Turn off the computer on which you want to install the Chrome OS and plug in the installer USB
  • Boot from USB (on Dell, HP and Lenovo press F12 when the Logo appears. On other computers is usually the F1 or F12 key).
  • Follow the onscreen instructions and wait for the installer to finish.
  • After the installation is done, the computer will shut down. Disconnect the installer USB and turn on the computer again.
  • Complete your installation by adding your Google account and eventually your network details if you decided to skip this step during the installation.
  • Done. You now have a fun new toy to play with.

What is Chrome OS?

Basically Chrome OS is an Operating System designed to by fast and dedicated to those that are doing all their stuff online. From reading emails, chatting, listening to music, using online document editors like Google docs to playing online games. If that type of a person are you, than you might not need a “full” computer OS. Just think about if it makes sense to you to open your computer if the internet is down. The guys from Google are explaining it better:

Now you know what Chrome OS is and how to install it for free on your old PC or laptop. Let us know how it worked out.

P.S. Microsoft works on a alternative Cloud based OS called Windows 10 Cloud. We have covered it in depth here.

Related

Chrome Operating System Download Free

Summary :

Though the chrome OS is designed by Google for PC, it is not only available on desktop; actually, you can run the Google chrome OS in other ways, such as from a USB drive. The following content will tell you how to run the OS from external drive and how to distinguish if this OS is right for you.

As an operating system designed by Google, the Chrome OS is produced on the basis of Linux kernel. The Google Chrome web browser is used as the main user interface in Chrome OS. Announced in July 2009, the Google Chrome OS is mainly used to support and run web applications.

All in all, Google Chromebook is not the only way to work on Google OS. In the next part of this article, I’ll walk you through the way to run Google’s desktop OS with the help of a USB drive. And after that, I’ll show you how to determine whether the Chrome OS is suitable for you.

Run Google Chrome OS from A USB Drive

Things you need to prepare:

  • A fully-functional computer system
  • A USB drive with a capacity of more than 4GB
  • A zipped-file extractor (7-Zip for Windows, Keka for Mac OS, p7zip for Linux)
  • An imaging burning program (Etcher or other options)
Note: You need to make sure that the USB port of the computer is working fine.

7 Steps to Run Google’s Desktop Operating System from A USB

Step 1: you need to download the latest OS image from an alternate source (Arnold The Bat is a good choice) since Google doesn’t offer any official Chromium OS build.

Step 2: you need to extract it with the zipped-file extractor you have prepared since the downloaded file will be in zipped format.

Step 3: please plug in your USB drive to the computer. Then, choose to format it as FAT32 (in Windows).

Various solutions are provided for you to fix USB flash drive not recognized error and recover data from the not showing up/not working USB device.

For Mac users, the built-in Disk Utility is able to help them format the USB drive as FAT32. However, if you find it is labeled as “MS-DOS FAT” in Mac, it’s the same thing; please don’t worry.

Step 4: you need to get an image burning program. Though there are plenty of such tools, Etcher is a good choice for its good compatibility; it works the same way on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Step 5: install the OS image you’ve got in step 1 to the formatted external USB drive with the help of image burning software.

Tip: What if the USB drive contains important data and you only realize this after burning image to it? You must want to recover data from the broken USB drive. Actually, it’s possible!

Step 6: restart your computer and press corresponding key to enter BIOS. Then, you’ll need to select the USB drive with OS image as the first boot device. After that, exit and save changes.

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Step 7: let the computer start automatically. Now, you’re able to enter the Chrome OS and experience all the glory of it promptly.

This method is suitable for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux users. And it doesn’t require you to overwrite your current OS.

How to Decide If Chrome OS Is Right for You

Chrome operating system download free

Before getting moving to install Chrome OS, you should ask yourself 4 questions to figure out if it is a good choice for you.

Chrome Operating System Download Usb

  1. Are you used to spending much of your time using the web and web-centric services?
  2. Can web-centric (and/or Android app) equivalents do most of the things you need to do on a computer?
  3. Is there any specific local program that you must need?
  4. Can you live only in the Chrome browser on your computer for a week or a longer time?

Free Google Chrome Operating System Download

If the answers to above questions are respectively: yes, yes, no, and yes, the Chrome OS may be right for you.