A Reddit user has managed to make Windows dual-boot possible on Chromebooks with AMD processors.
If you're looking to install Windows 10 or Windows 11 on your Chromebook, there's some potentially good news for you today. Thanks to the work of Reddit user Coolstarorg, it's now possible to dual-boot Windows 10 or 11 alongside Chrome OS on select Chromebooks powered by AMD Ryzen 3000. There are some limitations, but for the most part, Windows should work fine on these machines.
Currently, only a handful of devices are supported, mainly because eMMC storage is not yet functional when dual-booting Windows on your Chromebook. You will need to have a laptop with an SSD, and only three devices are officially supported: the HP Chromebook 14b, the HP Chromebook Pro C645 Enterprise , and the Lenovo Yoga C13. The ASUS Chromebook Flip CM5 should also be supported, but the author of this project has not yet had the opportunity to test it.
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Aside from the eMMC storage not working — Windows can read and write to it, but UEFI can't boot from it — the only other feature that's not working is the fingerprint reader. You won't be able to log into Windows using Windows Hello, which is potentially problematic, but probably doesn't make dual-boot useless. Aside from those two features, everything else, including audio, touchscreens, brightness controls, power management, and so on, should work fine in Windows.
See also: Google makes it easier to sync between Android and Chromebooks
As for how it works, it’s nothing new. First, you’ll need to repartition Chrome OS using chrx, a popular tool for dual-booting Linux on a Chromebook. Then, update the RW_LEGACY on your computer using the script provided by MrChromebox , and finally, use the script created by coolstarorg to set up dual-boot. You can visit this page for a complete guide on how to dual-boot Windows on your Chromebook, assuming your model is supported. Several Intel- also support dual-booting Windows, not just the recently added AMD ones.
It should be noted that while you can do this, we can't think of a good reason why you would want to. If you're interested in running Windows, chances are you'd be buying a Windows laptop in the first place, and there's always the chance that something could go wrong when you do these steps. Plus, part of the advantage of Chrome OS is that it runs flawlessly and seamlessly on the devices it comes with, which isn't often the case with Windows. And if you really want to run Windows apps on Chrome OS, there's also virtualization software like Parallels Desktop. Still, if you want to give it a shot, you now have that option.
Source: xda-developers.com
