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trevortye
trevortye
New Member
April 7, 2026

Community program to upgrade old laptops to chrome OS Flex

  • April 7, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 48 views

I have been upgrading older laptops to Chrome OS Flex for people who’s laptops software is now considered obsolete. I have been doing this for about 3 years now and I would like to get in touch with someone at Google to run a program at the community library or something like that to more/less get their blessing on it.  Since they have a BYOD program where back market gets users to pay for a USB key, I am hoping they would like this idea.

1 reply

Rafa
RafaCommunity Manager
Community Manager
April 8, 2026

Hi ​@trevortye, that’s a great idea and initiative, thanks for sharing it and for your query!

To highlight some useful info and key points, it’s worth noting that the end user can leverage ChromeOS Flex themselves in a quite straightforward way by following the steps found here. Perhaps you or the library could talk them through the steps in case some further guidance is needed? 

In terms of cost, that would only have to be considered in the case that a newly ‘flexed’ device needs to be enterprise enrolled to a company domain (as part of an organisation). In this scenario, then the employer or organisation would need to purchase a ChromeOS Enterprise Upgrade license in order to be able to manage the recently ‘flexed’ devices.

It’s important to be cognizant that the cost would only be related to the use case that the individual would have in mind: there’s no need for a license when it comes to personal use, but using the device as a BYOD for work might require ChromeOS Enterprise Upgrade. However, if the employer is a charity, then they might be eligible for a not-for-profit license version. To check further info on the paid version and license types please have a look at this link.

I hope you find the info shared above useful and please feel free to ask any other questions that you might have!

To open it to the community, it’d be interesting to hear if you or any other member have done something similar in your local area and if so, perhaps sharing some insights?

Community Manager
trevortye
trevortyeAuthor
New Member
April 8, 2026

I have done this in my community in St. Albert, Canada.  Typically coincides with starting the school year, single parents, widowed people and people who don't have a lot of money to spend on technology, I offer upgrading their old laptops for their children to use in school or for themselves for security reasons.  A lot of people reach out in Facebook groups and they don't have a lot of technical ability like creating a USB thumb drive with flex would be challenging for them.  Typically I do have to make sure that the machine will boot with all the devices working such as Wi-Fi, trackpad, keyboard, mouse.  I have had issues where some devices do not have wireless working when I've booted off a flex OS USB drive.  My children themselves also use Chrome OS Flex. My daughter has a 2008 MacBook Air that was my wife's, and my son has a Lenovo yoga laptop.  I've done this for the last 2 years since my wife passed away. I'm glad to see that there's some initiative on Google for doing this.  

    Rafa
    RafaCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 9, 2026

    Such great work that you’ve been doing ​@trevortye, thank you again for sharing it!

    In that case, you can keep an eye on device compatibility with ChromeOS Flex here. Also, the Chromebook Help Community might be a better place for you to point those users to once they are up and running with their new personal Chromebooks, as our ChromeOS + Cameyo Customer Community is more destined towards IT Admins organisations managing enterprise fleets of devices. 

    I’m sorry for your loss and thanks again for reaching out. It’s very encouraging to see that kind of initiative and hope you and those new ChromeOS Flex users find the info shared useful. 

    Community Manager
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