Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

You’ll soon be able to run Windows and Chrome OS on your Chromebook

Jon Martindale
By
google pixelbook vs. samsung chromebook pro
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Chromebooks may soon sport one of the most requested features of the Chrome OS platform: dual booting. The option to switch to a Windows or alternative operating system install on a Chromebook is thought to be under development at Google with the name Project Campfire. A number of new commits in the Chromium repository suggest that its development is far along and Chromebook users the world over may soon be able to take advantage of it.

One of the downsides of Chromebooks is that as great as Chrome OS is, it’s not as fully featured, nor does it have the same breadth and depth of applications, as Windows does. Although most Chromebooks lack the hardware to deliver a snappy Windows experience with decent battery life, some can support such an experience, and those could be fantastic candidates for a dual-boot system. Google’s own Pixelbook line would be a great place to start, which is one reason that it appears to be testing the new feature on “Eve,” the code name used for its original Pixelbook.

Recommended Videos

The new feature is said to be called Dual Boot, although certain commits still refer to Google’s internal name for the project: Alt-OS, as AboutChromebooks explains. Commits discuss adding this “Alternative OS mode” to the Pixelbook, as well as hashing out the security requirements switching operating system would need to consider.

Related

These commits suggest that Google has a functioning Pixelbook that can dual boot between Windows and Chrome OS without compromising security. It also suggests that the Pixelbook’s hardware is capable of running Windows without too much difficulty. That may mean that only premium Chromebooks will be able to fully take advantage of this feature, but it may also be that the Pixelbook is just a good starting point for testing since it’s a Google developed product.

When this will be officially announced is another question entirely. It’s possible that Google will push some form of announcement through its partners at CES 2019 in January. As AboutChromebooks notes, that’s typically how the company likes to do things, especially at that particular show where it has never had a stand of its own. Otherwise we may be waiting for one of Google’s own events scheduled to take place later in the year.

Updated December 19, 2019: Corrected a mistake in AboutChromebooks’ name.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale
Computing Coordinator
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
How Windows 11 scrapes your data before you’re even connected to the internet
windows 10 pro default product key privacy

You toggled the privacy sliders off in Windows 11, you don't want to share your data with Microsoft, and that's the end of it, right? It turns out Windows 11 is collecting a lot of your data regardless, even on a brand-new PC.

Neowin recently reported on a YouTube video by The PC Security Channel where they showed how a brand new Windows 11 laptop versus a fresh Window XP install behaved in terms of what data, if any, was being sent online.

Read more
Why I converted my Windows laptop into a Chromebook, and why you should too
Chrome OS Flex on a ASUS laptop.

You've probably not heard of ChromeOS Flex. It's Google's program for turning crusty computers into Chromebooks -- which sounds like a neat idea as a concept. But it's primarily been marketed toward businesses and classrooms.

I wanted to give it a shot, though. I have an older Windows laptop that was dying to be converted into a fresh, snappy Chromebook. As someone who's been primarily using Chromebooks for almost half a decade, I was ready to take on the challenge to see if ChromeOS Flex might be a serviceable way to bring old laptops back to life. Despite some limitations in the end product, it's a pretty intuitive way to breathe some fresh air into an otherwise unused laptop.
Chrome OS Flex is all Chrome, all the time

Read more
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will bring your PC to its knees (and you’ll love every minute)
A horde rushing at the player in Warhammer 40K Darktide.

Rejects, get your lasguns and chainswords ready. There's a heretic about in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and it's up to you and three other criminals to venture into the Hive city of Tertium, eradicate the plague, and wipe out the traitors before heresy spreads. Between some performance drops and intermittent crashes, that is.

I hit the ground running with Darktide, and I've put 30 hours into the PC game prior to its full release. I've rounded up a few tips to optimize performance, and will also cover what frame rates you can expect on different hardware, as well as some vital considerations to keep in mind before you buy the game.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide system requirements

Read more