Ever since Google announced Chrome OS, the platform has come a long, long way. The platform and Chromebooks were often thought of as being incomplete and a little too far ahead of their time. That was way back in 2011, and since then the platform has come on leaps and bounds in the last five years. Thanks to sophisticated web apps that now do the majority of what most average users need to do on a laptop or computer, it’s no surprise that Chromebooks are selling better than even MacBooks at this point. Affordable, easy to use, quick and reliable a Chromebook is now a pretty sound purchase, rather than something you might regret some time later. There are however, still some quirks about the platform that can make it feel like more of a web browser than a full operating system.
To make Chrome OS feel more like Windows or macOS, users can simply right-click on the items on their bottom bar and then change them to “open in a new window”. This will ensure that these web pages or apps open in their own little window, making them feel like their own program, just like they would on Windows. Given that users are able to pin whatever website or web app they want to the bottom bar in Chrome OS, this can help make Chrome OS feel more like a desktop operating system. On top of that, users should also take a closer look at the file explorer in Chrome OS. Not only does it feel like something you’d find on macOS or Windows, but it can also be pretty useful. This is another part of Chrome OS that some users might not be aware of, but the platform allows for all manner of external storage be plugged into a Chromebook, and users can then upload these files to either Google Docs or even Microsoft Office online to work on them in their favorite apps.
Chrome OS has come a long way in the past five years, and there’s a very good chance that it will only get better over time, too. With support for Android Apps as well as the Play Store now arriving on more devices, and the rumors surrounding Andromeda, it’s an interesting time to be a fan of Google software as well as hardware, as it appears as though there’s a lot over the horizon.