Chromebook to windows laptop?

[Marcus Torre DeProspero]

So a friend just bought my mother a Chromebook but she hates the layout I want to put windows 10 is on it and see if she lightens up to this new laptop but I'm not sure if I can I just wanted to see if anyone here has done it or has heard of it being done. The laptop is an acer n15q9.

[The Sloth]

use linux, windows is not worth it on such low-end hardware. 

[Marcus Torre DeProspero]

Just now, nerdslayer1 said:

use linux, windows is not worth it on such low-end hardware. 

I have never used Linux and I don't feel comfortable letting my mother use that os although she has used it before either way she wouldn't go for it.

[The Sloth]

Just now, Marcus Torre DeProspero said:

I have never used Linux and I don't feel comfortable letting my mother use that os although she has used it before either way she wouldn't go for it.

 

just learn to use chrome OS, put some skin on it to make it look nicer. 

[Naeaes]

As you look into this, you should know the ChromeOS supports ARM processors (which Windows doesn't). So there's lots of info about this not being possible, and it's true for ARM laptops but not for all. This particular laptop has an Intel x86-64 CPU, which is fine for Windows, in general.

 

Because it's still a Celeron, which as laptop CPUs go, is about as puny as it gets and by the looks of it, only 2GB of RAM which also barely cuts it. Windows on this laptop would wind up being quite sluggish. I personally absolutely very much never would go for it but we do all come with our personal standards. Also, with only 16GB of storage space, there's not much they could store in there in addition to the Windows (takes 11GB IIRC)

 

But at the end of the day, it's technically doable. Download Win 10 on a USB stick, boot the laptop from said USB stick, install Windows (with Internet connected so it gets the drivers for it, hopefully), hope for the best as you go along, check that you got all the drivers and find online the ones you didn't. If you skip the lisence key query, you automatically get a free trial which you can later activate online. It costs about 120€. If it turns out it's too slow or some crucial drivers simply don't exist , you can always re-install ChromeOS.

 

But I gotta reiterate, this'd be a bad bad user experience.

 

 

[vanished]

8 minutes ago, Marcus Torre DeProspero said:

I have never used Linux and I don't feel comfortable letting my mother use that os although she has used it before either way she wouldn't go for it.

I long time ago I switched my grandmother from XP to Ubuntu and it was a big improvement in every way.  The differences don't really matter for what most people will do.

[SCHISCHKA]

29 minutes ago, Marcus Torre DeProspero said:

but she hates the layout

not many people are interested in exploring new UI. I would just wait and see if she warms up to it.

 

[Droidbot]

28 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

But at the end of the day, it's technically doable. Download Win 10 on a USB stick, boot the laptop from said USB stick, install Windows (with Internet connected so it gets the drivers for it, hopefully)

No, no, no, no. This isn't how this shit works. 

Chromebooks use bootloaders like Android devices - with modern Chromebooks using the new 'Depthcharge' bootloader, which is initialized through Coreboot (which quickly initializes all the hardware in the system then runs Depthcharge) - the bootloader doesn't boot Windows or other operating systems. It boots ChromeOS and ChromeOS only, by loading the kernel then the rest of the operating system through a secure process. 

 

You can boot Windows on a Chromebook by disabling the OS verification through a hardware switch or screw (depends on model) and then flashing a custom Coreboot payload, which allows either BIOS or UEFI boot. And then you will be able to boot into Windows, albeit there is NO drivers except Wifi on some units -  you will need to enable test signing on Windows 10, and then install community-made drivers. which makes most multiplayer games refuse you access as you have installed unsigned drivers. 

[CRRogue]

1 hour ago, Naeaes said:

As you look into this, you should know the ChromeOS supports ARM processors (which Windows doesn't). So there's lots of info about this not being possible, and it's true for ARM laptops but not for all. This particular laptop has an Intel x86-64 CPU, which is fine for Windows, in general.

Actually, there's a Windows release for ARM processors, but I've only seen it as available for Raspberri Pi. It's called Windows IoT, personally I haven't tried it and would go for the linux option, as Ryan_Vickers said, it doesn't matter for what most people do. Even though if you want to use windows programs you can use Wine, it doesn't runs absolutely everything, but it works for at least playing cs 1.6 on a high school computer.

 

Just checked it out, Windows IoT  doesn't have a desktop, or any user-focused environment, so you won't be able to use an internet browser, office or anything as you'd in a thin client such as a Raspberry with linux or a mini PC.

Edited May 12, 2017 by CRRogue
Windows IoT info gathered