In context: Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 in October 2025, yet millions of users continue to run the OS as their primary computing platform. ChromeOS Flex offers a potential alternative to Redmond's aging system, and Google has now launched a new partnership aimed at making the cloud-based OS easier to install.
Google has partnered with Back Market, a company specializing in refurbished tech products, to bring ChromeOS Flex to even more users and organizations. The advertising giant continues to promote ChromeOS Flex as a way to turn aging laptops into secure, sustainable, and fully supported machines. Thanks to the new partnership, the ChromeOS Flex fork now comes with its own USB kit – if you can find one to buy.
Google said the ChromeOS Flex USB Kit is a physical USB dongle priced at $3 or €3. Customers can use the flash drive to quickly deploy the web-based operating system on Windows or Mac machines, replacing their "obsolete" operating system with a modern computing experience. The USB dongle, which is already out of stock on Back Market's site, is designed as an easy-to-use tool to combat planned obsolescence.
ChromeOS Flex was introduced a few years ago as a way to bring the web-centric ChromeOS experience to a wider range of devices outside the Chromebook line of OEM systems. Google now maintains a list of certified laptop models expected to work well with ChromeOS Flex, meaning the OS may fail to install on non-certified hardware.
Google acknowledges that maintaining software support can be challenging, and Microsoft is not the only major tech company facing these issues. In the past, Mountain View has extended guaranteed software updates for Chromebooks and Pixel phones to 10 and seven years, respectively. Meanwhile, Microsoft is currently providing an additional year of security updates (through October 2026) for eligible Windows 10 users.
Windows 10 remains a massively popular operating system, and the number of machines that cannot be upgraded to Windows 11 is growing rapidly. Google is now actively promoting ChromeOS Flex as an alternative platform to keep these older machines operational, at least for web browsing and less demanding productivity tasks.
ChromeOS Flex can be installed either via a specialized dongle, such as Back Market's USB drive, or by downloading the OS directly through Google's help center. Mountain View emphasizes that ChromeOS incurs no additional hardware costs and can significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with expensive device upgrades.
Manufacturing a new laptop accounts for a large portion of a machine's total environmental footprint, Google explained, while ChromeOS Flex is designed to run on pre-existing devices. The company also claims that ChromeOS can reduce energy consumption by up to 19% compared with "comparable" operating systems. However, it remains unclear whether ChromeOS is truly comparable to major platforms such as Windows, Linux, or macOS.