Every month I create a fresh build of Chrome OS which can be run from USB drives on almost any machine. Contrary to the very first release from November recent releases support various wireless network controllers. You can download it either from one of my servers or via the BitTorrent network. Once a new version is released, all previous versions are removed, so please don’t link them directly but link to this page.

Chrome OS image file

For use on USB drive

1. Download the USB drive image from one of the locations above.
2. Extract it (using e.g. free 7-Zip).
3. Copy the image to your USB drive (find a tutorial on how to do that in Windows or Linux here). A capacity of at least 4 GB is required.
4. Boot from USB drive.
5. Login with your Google Account or create a new one. Note that an Internet connection is required in order to login.
6. Enjoy! You can find a list of all keyboard shortcuts here.

For use in VirtualBox

UPDATE 2010-29-04: The current release doesn’t work in VirtualBox. Use VMWare Player instead.

You can also use this image in VirtualBox (free download) after you converted it to a .vdi file. To do that in Windows:

1. Go through steps 1 and 2 from the section above.
2. Hit Windows key + R.
3. Type cmd and click OK.
4. Change to your Virtual Box install directory (first, enter DriveLetter:, then cd VirtualBoxPath).
5. Type VBoxManage convertfromraw ImgFile.img VdiFile.vdi ––format VDI (note the two dashes before format) where ImgFile.img is the absolute path to your .img file and VdiFile.vdi is the absolut path to the .vdi file that is created.
6. Create a new virtual machine in VirtualBox with the .vdi file as hard drive. See how it works here.
7. Enjoy! You can find a list of all keyboard shortcuts here.

For use in VMWare Player

As the newest releases don’t work in VirtualBox, I decided to provide a VMWare image as well. First, download the free VMWare Player.

1. Download the VMWare version of the latest Chrome OS release (link in table above).
2. Extract it (using e.g. free 7-Zip).
3. Open chromeos-blog.com.vmx in VMWare Player.
4. Click Play virtual machine.
5. Enjoy! You can find a list of all keyboard shortcuts here.

Please don’t link the files directly, because I will rename them when updating. But please DO link to this page and leave comments if it worked for you and which kind of computer you used (no registration required)…

Related posts:

1. Spring release of Chrome OS image
2. Convert image file to VirtualBox file
3. New Year’s Chrome OS image release
4. Tutorial: How to run Chrome OS in VirtualBox
5. Tutorial: How to boot Chrome OS from a USB drive