

Go to the Chrome Web Store and install the Chromebook Recovery Utility.Open Google Chrome on your computer or Mac.

If you find that happens to you, try a different USB drive. How To Install the Software on an Old Laptop: A Two-Part Processīefore you start, know that Google cautions that the installation may fail with some USB drives. Important note: You should back up anything on your old laptop that you don’t want to lose before installing the new software. Just like the regular version of Chrome OS that comes installed on Chromebooks, you’ll have access to all of Google’s cloud computing services such as Gmail, Drive, Docs and more. While the software may not be able to fix all of an old machine’s problems, it’s a great way to bring an old laptop back to life and at least make it usable again without having to pay for new hardware or an expensive repair.

Google’s Chrome OS Flex (formerly Neverware) is free to install on a desktop computer, laptop or Mac. If you want to get out of that cycle or just want to revive an old laptop, there’s a solution, and it’s totally free. For whatever reason, people tend to hang on to the old ones. But for most people, it doesn’t mean getting rid of the old devices. Every few years (or even more often than that), most of us replace our electronics with new versions.
