Can i use windows on a chromebook?

I bought a chromebook, haven't received it yet. Its an acer 14 inch chromebook with 4gb ram and 32gb hard drive. I also have an internal hard drive that i never ever used... it came with a new laptop but i changed that one with an ssd. Thus this hard drive though its a regular hard drive is not fast, well its 1tb. I also have that enclosure box as well. First off, does that mean i could use my chromebook with my 1tb internat hard drive since i have the enclosure box? Or i cannot do this?


Also i read you could actually use windows on chromebook but you need to download certain program etc. So could i do this on a chromebook if i want in the future? The thing is i know windows takes a good amount of space. But does 32gb mean its enough as long as i connect an external or the internal hard drive with enclosure on it? I know the simple thing is you could have just bought a windows computer but i wanted mainly to use it for streaming and watching videos and web browsing and downloading files. Of course i might have lot of files so i would need some type of usb stick or hard drive for it. But if i wanted to use windows in the future with the chromebook would it work? The thing is its an acer chromebook and the processor is an intel celeron but its quad core entry level so that would be fast enough? But if it was 2gb and say 16gb chromebook, it would not?


Also if i use windows, i have to buy a copy of windows 7 or 10. But how much would that cost? It really wouldn't matter to be much which windows i use etc. Also i assume i could not use a windows copy of an old laptop or desktop that i no longer use right? Thus imagine a laptop with windows that the computer no longer work anymore. I assume i cannot use that code on the back of the laptop on it right? But how much would it cost to download the program on it? Also im curious but could i use linux on chromebook or not? And would it cost money to do this? I heard linux was free a while back.

I'm not aware of a way to get Windows on a Chromebook. It would likely perform horribly, based on their typical hardware specs. The 32 GB hard drive isn't a standard SATA drive, so they wouldn't be interchangeable. It's probably a moot point, but you would need a new license, and you'd need to find drivers as well, which may not exist.

I believe I have seen mentions of running Linux on a Chromebook. Linux is free (most of the distributions), but it is already running a type of trimmed down Linux already.

Hey all just received my chromebook but did not open it yet. But would you guys suggest i keep it? Again main thing is to stream/download movies etc. Also could i use an internal hard drive thats 1tb with it if i have the enclosure? Thus use the 32gb in the system but use the 1tb internal hard drive as an external hard drive since i have enclosure? I say this because that way i dont have to buy a 64gb usb stick for it etc.

Chromebooks sit at the lowest end of the laptop spectrum. They're cheap. They're easy. They're perfect for grandma.

Did I say they're cheap? That's partly because they DON'T run Windows. That eliminates the Windows licensing cost.
And because the OS is lightweight it can run on a low-resource computer ... such as a Chromebook.

But you don't put a high-resource OS on a low-resource computer.

Is it POSSIBLE to make Windows run on a Chromebook? Perhaps.
Is it worthwhile? Absolutely not.

If you want Windows get a suitable laptop. A Chromebook is the wrong choice.

margrave55 said:

But you don't put a high-resource OS on a low-resource computer.

Is it POSSIBLE to make Windows run on a Chromebook? Perhaps.
Is it worthwhile? Absolutely not.

If you want Windows get a suitable laptop. A Chromebook is the wrong choice.

Margrave with the answer ! Agree.

If you do keep the Chromebook, would be interesting to know how it compares to a Windows laptop in terms of speed, programs, etc.

For storage look for a slot for a MicroSDXC memory card, same as used on SmartPhones and Tablets. My 2 Win10 Tablets have 32GB SSD drives and I add a 64GB MicroSDXC card.

This should be of interest:
https://www.howtogeek.com/173353/how-to-run-windows-software-on-a-chromebook/

Depending on the exact model of Chromebook you have it may be possible to install Windows. But be aware it will not be a simple process. There is a link at the bottom of the page with more information. Read the instructions and understand them well. And heed all warnings.

Note that I have not done this, neither have I read all of the instructions. If you run into problems I will not be able to help you. If you read the instructions you will know more about this than I do.

Edit: I don't consider this a good idea, even if it works. If you want to run Windows, do so on a computer designed for the purpose.

torre said:

If you do keep the Chromebook, would be interesting to know how it compares to a Windows laptop in terms of speed, programs, etc.

We already have that answer! My sister-in-law bought an HP Chromebook for her mother. It ran for a couple of years before giving trouble, after which we bought her a new one, an Acer.

Both of them were low-RAM and small disk (flash disk?) ... and cheap. I said earlier that this is suitable for grandma (or, in this case, 82-year-old mother-in-law). She does surf-n-email and some online card games. That's all. For this a Chromebook is adequate.

For anything more it's not. There's no real software available ... only the google-supplied apps. Good enough for grandma, but not for the rest of us.

Storage is tiny. Performance is slow. If you compute you need a real computer, not a wannabe Chromebook laptop.