How to Install Chrome OS in Windows 7

By Taimur Asad | November 21st, 2009

Google unveiled Chrome OS in an event yesterday where they demonstrated the upcoming cloud-based OS for the first time in public. Source code of Chrome OS was also released which folks over at gdgt have compiled in a ready-to-install .vmdk file. All you need now is a system running Windows, Linux or OS X with any of the virtualization software like VMware or VirtualBox installed to get Chrome OS running within minutes.

Chrome OS on Windows 7 Chrome OS VM running under Windows 7. Click here to see the image in high resolution.

The following guide will help you install and run Google Chrome OS in VirtualBox under Windows 7. VMware Workstation can also be used to install and run Chrome OS VM in Windows 7.

Step 1: Download and install the latest version of VirtualBox for Windows 7. (download link is given below)

Step 2: Download .vmdk file for Google Chrome OS. (download link is given below)

Step 3: Start VirtualBox and click on “New” button. This will start a wizard that will help you create a new VM in VirtualBox.

Step 4: Name your VM “Chrome OS” and select “Linux” from Operating System dropdown menu, and “Other Linux” from Version dropdown menu.

Step 5: Assign your VM some Ram in megabytes. For this tutorial, I have allotted Chrome OS VM 512 MB of Ram.

Step 6: Now Select “use existing hard disk” option and select the .vmdk file of Chrome OS that you downloaded in Step 2.

Step 7: Click Next and finish the wizard.

That’s it! your final VM setup should look something like this:

Now simply click on the green colored “Start” button as seen in the screenshot above and wait for about 7 seconds for Chrome OS to boot up. You will need a valid Google ID to login into the operating system.