ChromeOS Flex: Turn an Old PC or Mac Into a Chromebook

ChromeOS Flex is Google’s way of giving older laptops and desktops a second life. It installs the ChromeOS experience, built around the Chrome browser and web apps, on PCs and Macs that were never sold as Chromebooks.

Is your device suitable?

Google lists these minimum requirements for the target device:

• an Intel or AMD x86-64-bit compatible processor (ARM devices are not supported),
• 4 GB of RAM,
• 16 GB of internal storage,
• the ability to boot from a USB drive,
• full administrator access to the BIOS.

Google also maintains a list of certified models; other devices may work, but without that guarantee. Google Play and Android apps are not available on ChromeOS Flex.

Make the USB installer

You need a USB drive of 16 GB or larger, and a ChromeOS, Windows or Mac computer with a current version of Chrome.

1. Add the Chromebook Recovery Utility extension from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Open it, click Get started and choose Select a model from a list.
3. Set the manufacturer to Google ChromeOS Flex and the product to ChromeOS Flex.
4. Select your USB drive and click Create now. The progress percentages may look unusual; that is expected.

The utility downloads the image itself, so there is no separate file to check by hand.

Before you install

Everything on the USB drive is erased, and installing ChromeOS Flex replaces the system on the target computer’s disk. Back up your files first. You can boot from the USB and try ChromeOS Flex before installing it. If you would rather keep a traditional desktop on old hardware, Linux Mint is a good alternative.