Chrome OS is a Linux-based operating system that runs on Chromebooks. It’s designed to be lightweight and fast, and it offers a lot of features that are not found on other operating systems. One of the things that Chrome OS lacks is an ability to run Windows applications. This is where VirtualBox comes in. VirtualBox is a free software virtualization software that can be used to run Windows applications on Chromebooks. It’s available for both Mac and Linux platforms, and it has a number of features that make it an ideal tool for running Windows applications on Chromebooks. To use VirtualBox, you first need to install it on your computer. Once you have installed it, open up a new window and click on the “Install” button. After the installation process has completed, you will need to select “VirtualBox” from the “Applications” menu in order to start using it. Once VirtualBox is installed, you can start using it by clicking on the “Start” button in the top left corner of the window. You will then need to select “Chrome OS” from the “System Tools” menu in order to start using Chrome OS as your virtual machine environment. Once Chrome OS is running as your virtual machine, you can start running Windows applications by clicking on the “Windows Applications” icon in the top left corner of your screen. You will then need to select one of the Windows applications that you want to run inside of ChromeOS.
Note: In this example we are using VirtualBox 3.0.12 running on a 32-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate.
Setup VirtualBox
The first thing to do is click on New to create a new machine in VirtualBox.
The New Virtual Machine wizard opens where you just want to click Next.
Type in a name for the machine and for OS Type you want to select Linux and the default version will be Ubuntu…you can leave that and click Next.
Now you want to select the amount of memory to allocate for the machine. In our test we used 512MB which seems adequate, but you can experiment with different amounts.
In the next step, select Use existing hard disk…
Then add the VMDK file you downloaded to Virtual Media Manager and select it.
You’re brought back to the wizard where the screen should look similar to this.
Then you’re presented with the summary of the new VM and if everything looks correct click Finish.
Now you will see the Chrome OS in the list of your virtual machines and you can start it up.
The Chrome OS will start up and the first screen you’re presented with is the log on. You need to enter in your Google account name and password to begin a session.
That is all there is to it. Now you can start playing around with the new OS from Google.
Conclusion
For those of you who like to try out the newest technology, this is a good option for testing out the Chrome OS. At this time don’t expect a whole lot of awesomeness with this build of Chrome OS. At least you can geek out on it and see what the hype is all about. Of course you can run it in VMware Player as well, but if you’re partial to VirtualBox, this will get you going.
Download Chrome OS from hexxeh
Download VirtualBox
