It's time to transform that tired Windows PC into a Chromebook with Chrome OS Flex

Windows 11 Start Hero Surface Book
Windows 11 Start Hero Surface Book (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Google has debuted Chrome OS Flex.
  • It's a way to transform your PC or Mac into a Chromebook.
  • It also features IT controls and is eligible to be deployed across fleets of PCs right now.

If you're saddled with a PC that's out of date, isn't relevant anymore in the software or hardware game, and is more or less looking like a lost cause, wait a moment before you chuck it in the dustbin (or recycling bin or do something with it that's more productive than wasting old electronics). Because instead of putting that piece of junk out to pasture, you can turn it into a Chromebook!

You can thank Google for this development. With its newly debuted, cloud-managed Chrome OS Flex, old PCs and Macs can be saved from their own deaths, Padmé style, via the power of Chrome. All you need to get up and off to the races is a USB drive and a willingness to convert your machine to Google's operating system.

Chrome OS Flex features IT controls and the essentials for managing fleets of PCs, so in case you have an organization's worth of wilting machines and aren't sure what to do, Google may have just given you a way out.

You can read the full scoop over at Google, where you'll also have the option to give Chrome OS Flex a try.

To warn you: Chrome OS Flex is a lifestyle choice, and if you choose it, it comes with drawbacks. For example: No Google Play, no Android apps, and no ARM PCs allowed. If these items aren't dealbreakers for you, then the house of Chrome welcomes your machine with open arms. It's like that old Google saying that the company never actually said, "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free of Mac and Windows."

Robert Carnevale

Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He's a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author of Cold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.