You can run Android apps on Chromebooks and soon you will soon be able to run Windows apps. Support for the feature was announced earlier this year and now, more details on how it will work have surfaced.
In an interview with The Verge, the product manager for Chrome OS, Cyrus Mistry, revealed users will be able to boot a full version of Windows using Parallels Desktop, so they are running both Windows and Chrome OS side-by-side. To make things even easier, Windows file types will be redirected to Parallels Desktop.
However, this isn’t the final destination Google has in mind for running Windows apps on Chrome OS. What Google has planned is for users to run Windows apps without the need for the whole Windows desktop. Parallels already supports this on macOS and Linux, allowing users to run Windows apps as if they are the apps of the main operating system.
Parallels Desktop will be available later this year for businesses. Resellers will be able to add the feature to business Chromebooks. Also, you will need what is called “Power Usage” Chromebooks to get it to work which means the system requirement will be Intel Core i5 or Core i7 chipsets with at least 8 GB RAM according to XDA-Developers.
Google believes the addition of support for Windows apps will boost purchases but seeing as it will be available for businesses we don’t expect a big increase in sales.
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