We recently wrote two in-depth guides on how to install Chrome OS on PC and how to dual-boot Chrome OS and Windows 10 on a single machine. This was an effort to bring Chrome OS to users who have been using Windows for years. While people love the lightweight OS and snappy performance, it doesn’t take much time for users to realize the lack of Windows apps that they dearly loved.
Here, we have mentioned quick links so that you can navigate to various sections easily. I would strongly recommend you to go through all the points so that you can understand how we are going to run Windows 10 on a Chromebook.
- Requirements
- Should You Install Windows 10 or Windows 7?
- Install Windows 10 on a Chromebook
- Set Up Windows 10 Virtual Machine
- Run Windows 10 on a Chromebook
Requirements
A powerful Chromebook featuring at least an Intel i3, i5, or i7 processor. If you have 4GB RAM (8GB would be nice) and 64GB storage then you are good to go. More the merrier.
A Windows 10 or Windows 7 ISO image. You can download a fresh copy of Windows 10 for free from here.
Before moving to the steps, you must know which Windows version would be a better pick for your Chromebook. To smoothly run Windows on a Chromebook, your Chromebook should have KVM support (Kernel-based Virtual Machine).
https://twitter.com/MaceMoneta/status/1289370308084813826
So the bottom line is that if you have KVM support, go with Windows 10 and if your Chromebook does not support KVM then pick Windows 7. It’s not that non-KVM Chromebooks can’t run Windows 10, but it won’t be usable for even day to day task. And the installation process will take a much longer time.
Before we move forward, I want to clarify my specs so that you get a good idea about running a Windows 10 virtual machine on a Chromebook. I am using HP Chromebook x360 Core i5 8th Gen. It comes with 8 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. I have allotted 30GB to Linux disk space and my Chromebook does not support KVM. On the OS side, I am running Chrome OS Beta (86.0.4240.49). I am pretty sure this will work even on the Stable channel.
Having done that, run the below command to install Virtual Machine Manager on your Chromebook. For ease, just copy and paste the command in the Terminal and hit enter.
Choose “Local install media” and click on “Forward”.
Here, click on “Browse“.
Here, enter how much memory and CPU cores you want to allot to the Windows virtual machine. I would recommend at least 4GB RAM and 4 cores if you are installing Windows 10. For Windows 7, 2GB RAM and 2 cores would do the job. But again, more the merrier.
Within a few seconds, Windows 10 will boot inside the Virtual Machine (VM). Now, proceed with the installation just like you do on Windows. The best part is that the Windows VM has internet connectivity and sound functionality too.
No need to fiddle with anything. Click on “Install Now” and then select the “Custom” option. After that, select the 20GB partition that you allotted and click on “Next”. That’s it.
On the next page, make sure the “sda” target is checked, and then click on “Delete”. Within a few seconds, the Windows VM will be deleted and your storage will free up.
So that is how you can install Windows 10 on a Chromebook. As I have mentioned above, the steps do look lengthy and complex but believe me, it’s quite easy and you can pull this off if you have a decent understanding of Linux.
