If Google’s ChromeOS Flex sounds familiar to you, that’s probably because we’ve recommended it a couple of times before. Robert Irvine tried it out in Issue 627 (page 74), and we suggested installing it on a USB stick in Issue 630 (page 53).
On both occasions, we were using preview versions of ChromeOS Flex, an operating system from Google that’s designed to run online tools rather than downloadable programs, and works well on low-powered computers. Now Google has released it for general use (see www.snipca.com/42732), so we’re revisiting it – this time for an in-depth look at how you can use it to rejuvenate a PC or laptop that’s too old to run Windows 10 or 11. Once installed, ChomeOS Flex provides easy access to Google’s online tools, including Chrome, Docs, Gmail and YouTube (see screenshot right).
1 Download the
Launch any Chromium-based browser (such as Chrome, Brave or Edge, but not Firefox) and visit to download the Chromebook Recovery Utility extension. You’ll need this to install ChromeOS Flex. Click the ‘Add to’ button on the download page. This will say ‘Add to Chrome’ on both Chrome and Edge, but other
