Google’s tool to turn old laptop computers into Chromebooks is now commonly offered

Earlier this year, Google revealed ChromeOS Flex, a tool that lets anybody take an old Windows or Mac laptop computer and offer it brand-new life by setting up Chrome OS. After introducing ChromeOS Flex in “early gain access to,” Google now states that Flex is prepared to “scale broadly” to more Macs and PCs.

The fundamentals stay the exact same. You can go to the ChromeOS Flex site to make a bootable Chrome OS setup on a USB drive to make sure that your system works appropriately, and you can then completely change your old computer system’s OS with Chrome OS if whatever checks out. When it comes to what’s brand-new, Google states it has actually checked compatibility with over 400 various gadgets. That became part of the objective of the early gain access to program– it let Google collect a lots of user feedback and repair some 600 bugs that were determined over the last couple of months.

While anybody can set up ChromeOS Flex, Google is mainly placing this as a tool for companies or schools to extend the effectiveness of older hardware. To that end, IT departments can in fact release Flex over their networks instead of upgrade every computer system with a USB drive. Google likewise keeps in mind that Flex gadgets can be handled utilizing the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade, which lets departments handle apps and policies throughout an entire fleet of computer systems.

This all happens a year and a half after Google purchased Neverware, a business that initially had the concept of letting users take old computer systems and turn them into Chromebooks Now that ChromeOS Flex is being released commonly, Neverware’s CloudReady software application will be transitioned to Flex in the coming weeks and the standalone CloudReady item will be closed down. That should not be a significant problem for anybody, however, as Flex is now steady and has some functions that CloudReady didn’t, like Google Assistant assistance.