Google has done it again, launching another product which would almost kill most of its product competitors, and this time its the Google Chrome OS, also called as the Chromium OS. Last time it was the Google Chrome browser which did give a shock to both Internet Explorer & Mozilla Firefox and now its the Operating System which wil atleast hit Microsoft for their Windows OS. Though this OS is totally a Online Stuff which would be useful for Netbook. Here is a complete guide on how to install Google Chrome OS on your Computer.
First of all don’t expect the current version to boot your computer with this OS like Windows but you will find it running on a Virtual Machine on your computer. Which means that this would use addition PC resources in order to run because the normal OS would also run in the background. The OS needs you to login to a Google Account and if you are worried about the security its advised that you use a temporary gmail account instead of your main account because the OS files are currently available on torrent sites and these are always not safe for use.
Download the 200Mb torrent file which comes in the .BZ2 format from here and then extract in on your computer using programs like winrar. Once extracted the total setup file is a Chrome OS Image vmdk file of 712mb size. Next download Virtual Box based on your PC configuration which is a free software useful for running a virual machine on your computer. Install Virtual Box and read the following instructions to complete this process, because in this case we have to install two things, first the main Virtual Box software followed by the OS Software, so don’t think that once you have installed Virtual Box the job is done. Next you will be asked to register for a Sun Online Account since the Virtual Box is a service from Sun.
Next, once the installation is completed you will find a screen like the following one. Click on New > Next > and follow the On screen options. You will be asked to give a name for the Virtual Machine which you can give as Chrome OS. Next you will be asked to set how much RAM you would like to allot from your total physical RAM, though by default there would be a number given to you which you can proceed.
Next you will be asked to create a Virtual Hard Disk in which you have a option to create a new Hard Drive for booting up or else use existing Hard Drive. Now select the 2nd option and then click on the Home Folder option you find in it. You will get a new window on your screen called as Virtual Media Manager, in this click on the Add button. Next browse the file you had earlier downloaded from the torrents website and select it.
Next click on the Select button to proceed and then again recheck if you had selected the option of Use existing hard disk. Click on Next & Finish.
Next on the main screen you need to click on the Start Button which will start running the Chrome OS and it will take few seconds to a minutes time to start off.
Once the start button is clicked, you will find a Welcome Page as shown below.
In order to continue you need to login with your Google Account Logins ie your Gmail Account, as earlier mentioned try out with a temporary gmail account to be safe. Thats it you are now into the new Operating System by Google. We will write another article on how the OS looks from inside and what special features it offers you with. Since this is not a totally self bootable operating system you wont be able to find most features which you find in Windows or OSX.
With the Crome OS Virtualized, how do you access the files system? I tried typing C:\ in the browser window, but all it did was Google C:\ rather than let me browse my HD?
I guess thats not currently available because this is a Virtual OS and has very limited features, just to get a idea on how the real OS would be.
Use the file: prefix or file:/// I’m not sure.
I tried file:/// on vmware and it let me browse the files.
Nice post. I have tried this, nice OS but can’t beat Windows OS. Thanks for the share.
I liked this post but for information your post is been stolen here at [removed]
Thanks for giving us the link, we have reported it and removed the copied content from their website.
Thanks Dan. That worked, although I still could not figure out which directory from there represents my local hard drive. I have it setup as a Shared Folder in VirtualBox, but I still could not see it when I was browsing the directory structure.