This is my old windows laptop, running extremely slow and struggling to manage even few chrome
tabs.
And here is the same laptop, now running blazing fast and effortlessly switching between multiple
chrome tabs.
I accomplished this boost in performance without upgrading the CPU, the RAM or the SSD.
Literally for 0 dollars, I have transformed my old piece of shit windows laptop into a
blazing fast machine.
So if you are wondering how I managed to pull this magic trick, keep watching!
So this old windows laptop of mine had been collecting dust for the last few years.
The problem was it's Intel Apollo Lake processor which is just not fast enough to run Windows
10 operating system.
Intel designed Apollo Lake processors mostly for cheap notebooks and chromebooks, and it
was sold under the brand Pentium N4200.
This family of processors used Intel's old atom architecture which was really slow.
So any laptop in 2022 running on this chip is a lost cause.
Until now, because recently Google released Chrome OS Flex, a free operating system that
can be installed on any windows laptop and transform it into a blazing fast chromebook.
So what you are seeing here is my old windows laptop, now running the Chrome OS Flex.
After this OS switch, my laptop feels like a completely new machine.
Chrome browser loads much faster and feels way more responsive.
Websites load very quickly and the annoying lag that I experienced with windows 10 is
gone.
Added bonus is that now I can toggle between multiple chrome tabs with ease.
I also like the fact that Chrome OS seamlessly updates in the background and does not force
you to reboot, something which windows 10 and 11 tends to do a lot
Now, installing Chrome OS Flex is a breeze if you do it the right way.
Don't google for chrome OS Flex because it will take you to their corporate customers
page.
And when you try to download it from there, you will be asked to provide a whole bunch
of personal information.
So instead go to the chrome web store and install the Chromebook Recovery Utility addon.
Then get a USB 3.0 flash drive that is at least 8GB in size.
Now launch Chromebook Recovery addon and under “Select a manufacturer” pick “google
Chrome OS Flex”.
Under “Select a product” category you will be presented with only 1 option, which
is “developer-unstable”.
Don't let that name scare you because Chrome OS Flex is pretty stable.
I dont know why Google is calling it "unstable", I have been using it for over a week and have
not experienced any crashes or hangs.
Next insert your USB flash drive and press continue.
It will take about 10 mins to get your bootable Chrome OS USB disk ready.
Now when the disk is ready, then you can reboot your laptop and it should automatically boot
from the USB disk.
Now sometimes this may not happen, and if that's the case with you, then you will have
to go into your BIOS setting and enable boot from the USB drive.
So this will depend on the laptop, you will have to figure out how to get to BIOS.
Usually "F2" and "F11" key will let you get into the BIOS settings when you are rebooting.
Once you have done that, then your laptop will boot Chrome OS, and you should be greeted
with a shiny Google Chrome logo.
From here on things are pretty straight forward.
Just enter your google credentials and follow the instructions.
Please note that if you are scared of deleting the existing Windows operating system, then
select “try Chrome OS” option.
When this option is selected, Chrome OS directly boots from the USB drive and does not mess
with your windows install.
This was the option that I selected and once I was happy with my Chrome OS install, I wiped
out windows 10.
Unfortunately there is no way to dual boot windows and Chrome OS, so you will have to
wipe out your windows install.
That sucks, and if anyone from Google is watching, please add a dual boot option so that we can
also keep our Windows install.
Now you wont be getting all the features of Chrome OS.
For e.g. there is no Android support.
So no access to google play store and no support android games.
Touch-screen support is also lacking, at least on my laptop which supported touchscreen under
windows 10.
Hopefully Google will address these issues in their future releases.
Chrome OS has also dramatically cut down the boot time on this laptop compared to Windows
10.
The wake-up time from sleep is much faster and it makes this laptop feel like a more
modern machine.
Honestly Chrome OS Flex has completely transformed this sluggish windows laptop into a pretty
spiffy chromebook.
Maybe I was being too harsh on the Intel Pentium N4200 processor.
It ain't so bad.
When paired with a thin operating system like Chrome OS, you can squeeze decent performance
from this chip.
So don't just throw out your old laptops yet, until you have tried Chrome OS Flex.
It's completely free, so you literally have nothing to lose.
Now if you are interested in a budget laptop, checkout this video over here where I list
my top 5 budget windows laptops.
These laptops are great for students and power users because some of them allow easy RAM
and SSD upgrades.
So go ahead and watch that video, and I will see you guys over there.
Bye!