Neverware: turn crappy PC laptop into a Chromebook

[sd_shooter]

I read about neverware and decided to try it out. It's a free OS that makes a PC behave like a Chromebook. It can either replace Windows or be configured to Dual Boot.

My wife had a Win8 HP 2000 laptop that had become the kids' toy but it had constant internet connection problems. It was originally $300 from Walmart, similar machines can probably be found today for $200. 4G RAM, 500G HD, some basic Intel/AMD processor but still pretty fast, 2GHZ or something. The issues it had were no doubt related to Windows but I don't have time to troubleshoot such things.

I decided to go with Dual Boot. Full replacement is easier but I wanted to hedge my bets. For DB to work there are some prerequisites:
- Must support UEFI (this is some new BIOS.) This laptop had it.
- Disable encryption on the Windows partition. This laptop already had it disabled.
- Disabled hibernation. This was also disabled already.

Procedure: (I used a Mac)
- Find a spare 8G or 16G USB drive. I have one on my keychain.
- Download the release zip file from neverware.com
- Install the Chromebook Recovery Utility app into your Chrome browser
- Unzip the downloaded zip file, it creates a bin file
- Plug in the USB drive, use the Recovery Utility to create a bootable image from the bin file
- Plug the USB drive into the target laptop, boot it (change BIOS options if necessary to force USB boot, also enable 'legacy mode')
- Follow instructions for the install, there are hardly any options
- Wait 45 minutes (supposedly 20 min, but for me it took longer)
- Done! Machine will shut down when install is complete. Unplug the USB.

The only thing left was to reboot the machine into neverware (Chrome OS), enter my gmail and connect to our home network. My kids were able to create their own accounts via the Google accounts they already had from school.

In summary, this is a great way to breathe new life into an obsolete laptop! I'm sure a dedicated Chromebook with an SSD would be even better, but having a 500GB Chromebook 'for free' is pretty nice too.

[the86d]

Congrats.

You can run also Knoppix and other Linux distros directly from USB too, w/out making any changes to storage, depending on hardware. A small-form-factor USB stick works well on many devices. 4GB-8GB stick will hold most DVD-sized live DVD distros.

Linux OS's are usually very lean, and Chrome OS is Linux based too, but less useful than other distros I commonly use. You can also do this on old Thin Clients that are really cheap too, but they are usually underpowered.

Try Knoppix via DVD w/out even installing (if you have a DVD drive in a device), although whenever loading an application, the DVD may need to spin up if it has spin down, so there might be some lag during that... but for not changing anything, it is pretty nice and full-featured, but boots FAST off of even USB 2.0.

I am not into Chrome OS, or Windows 10 that track via initial account setup by default, but that is just me.

[jpballa]

Good write up and thanks for the info.

I tried it on an old acer netbook that had window 7 starter.
It ran like crap and nothing would load, could barely open windows explorer
without it locking up.

Anyway, loaded a USB with it, then booted from it and it worked.
Surprisingly it was not that slow, but not blazing fast either.

Probably won't use it, I was just more interested about how it would run and all that.

[sd_shooter]

I already have Linux Mint running on another computer. For someone experienced with computers, I think Linux is a better option.

However my goal was to set up a computer for my kids. They already get chromebooks from school and are familiar with the google ecosystem. Neverware allowed me to create an exact duplicate of the Chromebook experience without buying another machine. Kid is able to open the lid, log on and he's right at home