Breathe new life into your old laptop with Chrome OS

Every laptop gets older with all its consequences, now you can give your device a new life with Chrome OS.

We humans are getting older, but so are laptops. And if your beloved device becomes slower, that’s a big bummer. Google now offers an option to rescue the ailing laptops in the form of Chrome OS Flex.

Old laptop with Chrome OS Flex

Chrome OS Flex is the default Chrome OS that runs on Chromebooks. Only in a form that you can install on computers that aren’t Chromebooks. Useful! The idea is that the lightweight OS won’t put a strain on your old device to the same degree as Windows or macOS. It’s essentially just a web browser that gets you back to work.

You have to be careful. It is still a project that is in the early stages. Google says it is in “early access” mode and is “still unstable” at the moment. Consequences of this may be that you may encounter some strange behavior or some annoying bugs. It is therefore wise to only install the program on a laptop that you no longer need.

To test

Now that we’ve posted that warning, you’re of course free to try. Google has a list of computer models it eventually wants to certify for Chrome OS Flex. It has also published some minimum operating system requirements: an Intel or AMD x86-64-bit compatible device, with a minimum of 4 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage, with the ability to boot from a USB drive.

Also, the same restrictions apply that there are with the normal version. For example, you cannot run full desktop applications. The software will also store files in the cloud by default. However, it may have everything you need, and it means you can continue to use your existing hardware.