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Introduction |
| The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromebook_Pixel|original Chromebook Pixel], a high-powered Chromebook released in 2013, [https://www.androidauthority.com/chromebook-pixel-2013-end-of-life-899370/|stopped receiving updates from Google in August 2018]. While the laptop still functions (and pretty well), it no longer receives Chrome OS updates, including security fixes. Plus, Google will keep reminding you with a little red notification that it has abandoned it. | | | This guide will get your Pixel modernized once more, with security updates and OS improvements. Best of all, hardly anything will change about the interface or system. We will install [https://www.neverware.com/freedownload|CloudReady Home Edition]. CloudReady, from Neverware, is meant to give older laptops and desktops a new life with a lightly modified version of [https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os|Chromium OS], the open-source root of the Chrome OS companies put on Chromebooks. | | | The Chromebook Pixel isn’t listed on CloudReady’s list of officially supported devices, but given that it’s a Chromebook, it works entirely fine. I’ve used for four months as of this guide writing, and 98% is functioning: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, touchpad, touchscreen and display, even the Linux system built into newer Chromebooks. There’s a strange sound occasionally when you boot up, but that’s about it. You won’t get Android apps, but then Google never tried to put them on the Pixel, either. | | '''Important:''' You will have to [guide|86362|remove the Pixel’s write-protect screw] and change the laptop’s BIOS as a prerequisite to installing CloudReady with a minimum or problems. Without doing these two things, CloudReady may not install properly; at the least, it will require you to enter a Control+L command ''every time you boot up your Pixel'', or else hear a very loud, un-mute-able beep. The initial hassle is worth it.
Luckily, the Pixel is an easy laptop to open up and get inside. Since you’re already opening it up, consider [guide|86369|a battery replacement] if your Pixel can barely live off the charger after 6 years. |
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