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Windows 10 is a versatile and powerful competitor to ChromeOS. While your Chromebook may not come packaged with Windows, you may still install the OS by following a simple process.
How Installing Windows Will Change Your Chromebook
Installing Windows on your Chromebook will free your device from the constraints of ChromeOS and give you access to the fantastically vast selection of Windows applications. Unfortunately, it’s not without drawbacks.
Windows is a demanding operating system, so you might find that your Chromebook’s previously sufficient hardware isn’t powerful enough to do much on Windows at all. Even after successfully creating what some refer to as a “Chrultrabook”, you might end up preferring ChromeOS.
Be warned that you’ll need to get rid of Chrome OS unless you have two drives—dual booting ChromeOS & Windows on the same drive isn’t possible.
Before downloading Windows 10, you should also verify onchrome://systemthat your Chromebook has at least 20 GB of hard drive space, 2 GB of RAM, and 1 GHz of processing power, though more is advisable.
Downloading Windows on a Chromebook is risky, and reinstalling ChromeOS is complicated. Weigh up the potential risk to your Chromebook and your warranty and install Windows 10 with caution.
To install Windows on your Chromebook, you’ll need to download the officialWindows 10 ISOfile and prepare a bootable USB drive to run it. You should create this installer using a separate Windows or Linux device.
Although you cancreate bootable drives with the Chromebook Recovery Tool, this method seems to work best for Linux distributions. It typically doesn’t work with Windows ISOs and, worse yet, the Chromebook Recovery Utility puts USB drives in a read-only state that is frustrating to reverse. Instead, you shouldcreate a Windows 10 installer using Rufusor a similar program.
Access Developer Mode and Install UEFI Firmware
Once you’ve prepared a bootable USB, you’ll need to disable write protection on your Chromebook. The method you should use to do this depends on your Chromebook model, but you can determine it by checking theMrChromebox.techwiki. Follow the advice provided in the link next to your specific Chromebook model.
Proceed to install the UEFI Firmware:
Finally, a prompt will appear asking whether you wish to create a backup copy of your stock firmware. This is vital since it lets you return to ChromeOS if you decide a Chultrabook setup isn’t for you.
Once you’re finished installing the new UEFI firmware and backing up your old ChromeOS firmware, you’re ready to begin installing Windows on your Chromebook. You can also reverse the changes you made to disable write protection—for example, you can reinstall the write protect screw if your Chromebook has one.
Run the Windows Installer on Your Chromebook
Finally, you’re ready to install Windows.
Proceed through the Windows installer:
When your Chromebook restarts or goes back to the beginning of the installer, remove the USB installer and restart the device. If the installation was successful, your Chromebook should boot to the final Windows setup prompt.
While you might be past the difficult stage of installing Windows on your Chromebook, you still have a few drivers to install before your new operating system is ready to use. The simplest method of finding the right drivers for your Chromebook involves Coolstar’sChromebook Windows Installation helper.
The drivers that you’ll need to download are device-specific, so it’s advisable to trust the tutorials that Coolstar gives you. Beyond that, you can takebasic steps to customize Windows 10and install a few extraWindows customization applicationsif you aren’t happy with the basic options offered.
