How to turn a redundant old laptop into a functional Chromebook for free

[Barracker]

If your children are struggling sharing devices in lockdown schooling and you can't afford new laptops, this may be some help.

This is something I did myself last lockdown, and it worked brilliantly.

As a result two ancient old windows XP laptops that hadn't been used in years and had been gathering dust in a cupboard are now functioning perfectly as Chromebooks for my children, who are using them for lockdown schooling.

The laptops in question became redundant years ago when Windows XP stopped being supported. One had somehow lost its battery too. I started with the crappiest laptop knowing if I somehow turned it into a brick it was no great loss, the thing was a write off to begin with. Before I began the laptop still worked, sort of, slowly, but couldn't be safely connected to the internet after Microsoft support ceased for Windows XP/Windows 7 because of the risk of viruses.

I'm still pretty chuffed that this worked so well. The laptops are amazingly zippy now and safe to connect to the internet. The software seems to be very 'lightweight' so it works well on elderly laptops with not great specifications.
I am not in any way techy. It's important I stress this! But I managed. So I'd say if you are able to follow some fairly straightforward instructions AND are ok with the idea of writing off an ancient laptop if this fails, then you have nothing to lose.

You'll need:

1. Crappy old redundant Windows laptop
2. A normal useful laptop (you'll use this to begin with to download the free software)
3. An 8GB USB stick

It may take one or two hours, depending on the speed of your internet, and how many times you stop for a cuppa wondering whether you're bonkers to attempt it.

Using your decent computer, you are going to download some software onto the USB stick which turns it into an magic installer gizmo.
Then you plug the magic stick into the crappy laptop and it installs some clever software called "Cloudready" which is a Chromium operating system, so it has all the Google web apps, like Gmail, Chromium browser, Calendar, Keep notes etc.

What you end up with is pretty much a Chromebook, albeit possibly one with cracks and scratches and a missing battery, in our case. (It works fine plugged in, obviously, and ensures my son sits properly at the kitchen table where I can keep an eye on him)

Don't forget to back up and save any old photos or files first before you wipe your old laptop, obviously!

The company who make the "Cloudready" software are called Everware, and since I did this in the spring they are now owned by Google, so this is all properly above board.

Here is the link to the instructions, and the minimum spec requirements for your laptop etc.

CloudReady Home Edition Instructions

I really hope this helps someone who, like me, couldn't afford new laptops for the children in lockdown, but possibly has old laptops lying around, or can be gifted someone's unwanted laptop that can then be repurposed.

Good Luck!

Picking up on the point above the linux community also has something to offer here "Timekpr-nExT" and "Gnome Nanny". The real advantage of linux such as ubuntu and these applications is that there is no need to have a common account so there is a lot less tracking opportunities than say google, apple or facebook etc.

Ohh I'd have assumed you'd be able to use Google Family link with a converted chromebook.

You can definitely use MS Family software with Windows 10.

@2020out

Thanks! I've got an old barely working machine so will see if I can do this!

Just a suggestion - if you do this but you don't need it, you could offer the machine to your children's schools to distribute to a family without.

I've just rummaged under the bed for the old laptop and discovered a Chromebook, a Kindle Fire and another tablet. I think they breed If they're all still in working order, I'll pass them on to people I know who are struggling.

What a kind, thoughtful post.

Thank you @Barracker for trying to help people in a practical way. This might sound over the top, but in the mass of negativity at the moment you’ve made my day.

@Lockdownbear as in wipe the whole thing & start again with Windows 10? I have no idea where to even start doing that so shall have a google for a youtube video!

Hi everyone,
An even better approach is to use linux Ubuntu. It is totally free, simple and has access to a huge swath of free software.

Before I did this thing with the Chromium software, I actually tried to venture into Linux first. I did eventually convert a tiny little Samsung netbook into a Linux laptop. I found it a difficult and frustrating experience, although I was pleased I eventually managed it.
Those with more technical backgrounds or better computer expertise may want to explore this option.

What I found personally was that it wasn't intuitive at all, I had to keep referring to user forums to work out what to do, the terminology was alien to me and although I did finally have a working laptop, my daughter found it wasn't very useful for her schoolwork. The school use Microsoft, she has a Google account and the Linux office programs just weren't easily compatible with either. The school would produce a Microsoft word document using the Microsoft software and she'd struggle to convert it, work on it in unfamiliar linux apps and send it back to them.

I'm glad I experimented with it, but it was a whole different level of complexity compared to this alternative. There are many reasons to be a bit lairy of Microsoft or Google, but they are both such familiar platforms to most people and seem to play well enough together to let the kids do what is required of them without needing a level of computer science expertise we lack.

We don't actually use the little Linux netbook at all now. I may turn it into a Chromebook like the others if it meets the minimum spec.

@Barracker
Great thread by the way. Sorry you didn't get on with linux. Yes it can throw up issues when not familiar with it. I thought I'd jump on to make people aware of other alternatives. For anyone experimenting I can recommend Libre office as an alternative to MSOffice, Libre will allow you to open and save in MS Office formats as well as odt etc. What I really enjoy about linux us the amount of open software that is available for free, everything from wolfram round to 3D CAD. I may be slightly geeky though!

@Lockdownbear

Ohh I'd have assumed you'd be able to use Google Family link with a converted chromebook.

You can definitely use MS Family software with Windows 10.

I created a second Google account for each of them for these Chromebooks. We treat it like the Chromebook schoolwork only account. It would have been the icing on the cake if I could have controlled them remotely. However now that the company is owned by Google, possibly this may yet be developed. As I say, they both have parental controls on them, just not controlled remotely by the "Parent link" app. I have however added these two accounts to my Google family group. This means that everyone has access to the shared family calendar, shared map, shared keep notes, hangouts, duo etc. And if I wanted, I can use my router to cut them off WiFi . But as I say, they stay downstairs and are seen as schoolwork laptops. They are only really used during school days.

My daughter who is older has a phone which I do control with family link. When my son starts secondary he may get a phone and I'll control that the same way too.

However, in the end I was just thrilled to go from zero working laptops to two functioning laptops. They were destined for the bin, honestly. It was not possible for them to be upgraded to a better version of Windows.

This may not be the best solution for everyone, but I do hope it is helpful for some.

Wow! Thank you so much for this OP! I have an old Dell and a Linx that have been gathering dust and I was going to eventually chuck out but now I have plans for my Sunday! And Dc might have their own school work laptop by Monday. Thank you!

Wishing you the best of luck converting them! Please do update the thread if you succeed, or if you get stuck. I'm not techy, as I mentioned, but will do my best to help. As I recall, one of the laptops hit a snag and I had to do some googling to work out the snafu. But I did eventually.
Unfortunately, I always resolve to declutter superfluous geeky knowledge from my brain once it has served its purpose, so I've completely forgotten what the issue was or how I fixed it, but I did eventually work it out. Something to do with booting up I think.

Anyway, my hope is that if people do hit snags, there are enough proper geeks around on Mumsnet to help sort them out.

Once up and running, I haven't needed to do anything to the laptops since.

Barracker

Definitely much better to have a Chromebook without Familylink than nothing.

When I was stripping and reloading Windows last weekend I really wasn't sure if what I was doing would work or not never having done it before.
I did consider going straight to Chromebook but thought it made sense to try redoing windows first.

Thanks, OP That's brilliant.

We are having issues getting the laptop to boot straight to the Cloudready OS and keep needing to press escape or boot from the memory stick.

Do you have any tips to get it to boot straight into the OS on startup?

Success with the Dell. DS is over the moon. Thanks again @Barracker. Now to try the linx.

I might have a go at this.

Oops. Spoke too soon. Maybe someone here knows what we need to do? We’re having trouble logging DS into his google classroom account. He logs into his myschool account and when he clicks on the Google classroom app it opens a new window where it shows my google email and an option to add another account but won’t accept his c2k email. Any ideas?

Great thread OP, thanks for sharing.

@Eng123

Hi everyone, An even better approach is to use linux Ubuntu. It is totally free, simple and has access to a huge swath of free software. For office apps open office works really well and is totally comparable with Microsoft office. I hate google chrome with a passion but well done op helping people put old devices to use.

I'd suggest Linux Mint over Ubuntu. It's based on Ubuntu but a little less pernickity about the exact licences of audio and video drivers.

That's good that you can restrict it from within the laptop even if not remotely. I may yet try it on the worse of the two old laptops. Good idea to post here, I hope a lot more people take it up

youboughtmeawall I'm not sure what your login glitch is with Google classroom unfortunately. Dd's school uses Microsoft teams and her school login works ok with the Chromium browser.

Have you tried the Cloudready forum?

Thanks I will do. I suspect it’s to do with the family link situation. In going to try on my current laptop to see how I have it set up and if I can sort it from there. If not I will try the cloud ready forum.

There's definitely a compatibility thing with family link, it seems Google only allow it to work with brand new Chromebooks, not CloudReady laptops. It's not ideal, but it's a trade-off because, well, free.
You may have to create a new google account just for the Cloudready chromebook like I did.

Thanks op this is really useful.

This is such a brilliant idea.

One question for the nerdy people - if I'm passing on old laptops are there any security implications? I.e. would it be possible for someone to recover data from the HD even though it had been wiped? I've always been very wary of passing on devices because someone once told me this was possible.

@Barracker

There's definitely a compatibility thing with family link, it seems Google only allow it to work with brand new Chromebooks, not CloudReady laptops. It's not ideal, but it's a trade-off because, well, free. You may have to create a new google account just for the Cloudready chromebook like I did.

Yes it says I need to update the chrome book to add an account. Will fiddle some more. If I’m creating a new google account will I need to reinstall the the cloudready from the USB?

Velvian take a look at step 5 here:

cloudreadykb.neverware.com/s/article/Installing-CloudReady-On-An-Uncertified-Device