ChromeOS Flex offers almost all of the great benefits of ChromeOS and is an upgrade from your existing Windows or Mac operating system, provided free of charge. There are a few differences, however. ChromeOS devices include Google-designed security chips and hardware that allow verified boot and firmware integrations, while ChromeOS Flex does not. In addition, if you need managed Google Play apps, that functionality is only available on ChromeOS devices. Learn more about all the differences here(opens in a new window).

You’ll need to purchase Chrome Enterprise Upgrade (or Chrome Education Upgrade) for each ChromeOS Flex device you want to manage before you can enroll them in your organization. Once enrolled, you can use your Google Admin console to manage those devices, apply policies, and get support.

If you are an administrator who is managing ChromeOS devices for a business, you can use ChromeOS device management to enforce policies, set up ChromeOS features for users, provide access to your internal VPNs and Wi-Fi networks, force install apps and extensions, and more.

You can use this ChromeOS Flex installation guide(opens in a new window).

ChromeOS Flex is designed to support the most common PCs and Macs over the last 10+ years, but it is only officially supported on certified models. You can visit our ChromeOS Flex certified models list(opens in a new window) to see which devices are supported.

ChromeOS Flex follows the same release cycle as ChromeOS. For details, see Manage updates on ChromeOS devices(opens in a new window).

You can use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Windows Deployment Services (WDS) to mass deploy ChromeOS Flex to devices in your organization. For details, see Mass deploy ChromeOS Flex(opens in a new window).