Turning a Windows 10 PC into a Chromebook

ExplainingComputers July 13, 2025
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ExplainingComputers

@explainingcomputers

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Weekly videos on computing and related topics. ExplainingComputers is produced and presented by Christopher Barnatt, who spent 25 years teaching computing and future studies in the University of Nottingham, and who is the author of thirteen books including "Digital Genesis: The Future of Computing, Robots and AI", "3D Printing: Third Edition" and "The Next Big Thing". If you are looking for hardware that I use in my videos, I have created Amazon Storefronts (US & UK) that are linked below. Please note that as an Amazon Associate I earn a commission from any qualifying purchases you may make. Please note that the e-mail address below really is for business enquiries only. If you want to contact me on another matter, please do so via a video comment. Due to the volume of communications I receive, I cannot offer a technical support service via e-mail.

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Installing ChromeOS Flex or FydeOS on a Windows 10 computer, which gives it the functionality of a Google Chromebook. And, as shown in the video, this can include the ability to run local Linux applications. ChromeOS Flex is available here: http://chromeos.google/products/chromeos-flex/ FydeOS is available here: https://fydeos.io/ The Rufus utility that I used to write the ChromeOS Flex and FydeOS image files to a USB drive is available here: https://rufus.ie/en/ And the Webcam Test website is here: https://webcamtests.com/ The previous video in which I detail how to install Linux applications in ChromeOS Flex (and it works just the same in FydeOS) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsWgzH3OzYY And you can find all of my videos on alternative operating systems here: https://explainingcomputers.com/alternative_os_videos.html BOOTING FROM A USB DRIVE Exactly how you boot from a USB drive does I’m afraid depend on your particular computer. Often a boot menu can be accessed by pressing a particular key when you power-on, which may be F12, F11, F10 or Esc. And if you can bring up such a menu, you can simply select the USB drive. Alternatively, you can enter the BIOS/UEFI, again by pressing an appropriate key, which is commonly F2, Del or Esc. Once in the BIOS you can hopefully find a setting that will change the boot order to have USB first, so that your computer will always first try to boot from an inserted USB drive. However, to work, this may also require you to disable a feature called “Secure Boot”. This said, in the BIOS, there is often an “Exit” or similar menu (usually on the end on the right) that offers a “boot override” facility. And this allows you to select to boot from a USB drive without having to turn off secure boot or to make any other BIOS changes. So here you would select your inserted USB drive, and your computer would then happily boot from it. Sadly, UEFI/BIOS settings and USB boot configurations are just not standardized, so I cannot give you a definitive set of instructions here. But I do provide more guidance in my video on “PC BIOS Settings”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezubjTO7rRI More videos on computing and related topics can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/@ExplainingComputers And more videos on film and other making, plus retro tech, can be found on my Christopher Barnatt channel: http://www.youtube.com/@ChristopherBarnatt Chapters: 00:00 Titles & Intro 00:45 A Cloud OS 01:57 ChromeOS Flex 13:01 FydeOS 17:34 Linux Apps 19:20 Wrap #ChromeOS #ChromeOSFlex #FydeOS #Windows10 #ExplainingComputers

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