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The spiritual successor to the Chromebook Pixel, the Google Pixelbook was unveiled at the 2017. Made by Google event, and made available October 31st, 2017. Model number: C0A.

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Where is the Write Protect Screw and how do I install Windows?

I would like to install Windows on the Pixel Book as I have finally gotten into an education that doesn't typically have any programs that actually run on the Chrome OS platform and the more I see the Windows platform running on Mac Books of friends and other actual windows computers the more I would like Windows on my Pixel Book

I have Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Win 7, Win 8, Win 8.1, Win 10.

So really I think I can get this system running any of them if I want.

My Pixel Book is the Intel i7 16gb RAM version with 512GB of storage.

I will sacrifice everything. I will power wash the device. I will remove the battery and anything else needed. I just want windows on this thing and any problems and damages done to the software is ok as long as the software of windows survives and I am able to use my ITT skills to fix Windows.

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I have tried crouton, I have tried disabling flags, I have tried accessing the SeaBIOS and turning off write protect options, I have enabled and disabled things with debugging. This computer says in every way it should be able to be written but when it comes to throwing the USB with Windows 8 or 10 on it the computer locks up and doesn't know how to think. CTRL-L on boot and CTRL-U don't do anything but make things worse.

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have you disconnected the battery for rewriting UEFI bios?

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were you able to find answers to this? looking to do the same

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While installing Arch Linux on my 2015 Chromebook Pixel 2, I found through trial-and-error that the left USB Type-A ports don't work well with my newer Samsung USB 3.0 thumbdrive, Even though my older 2011 Macbook Air booted the OS off of it easily. Thankfully, I eventually found out that a really old USB 2.0 thumbdrive that I had on hand worked well.

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Austin, I’m sure this is way past the point where you can use an answer, but I wanted to put this here for anyone wandering around the web, looking for an answer.

If you’re willing to put in the work, you can get Windows 10 running on a Pixelbook. You don’t even need to take apart the device and damage that rubbery bottom/back portion.

The best and most up-to-date information on this process comes from MrChromebox, a tireless ChromeOS hacker who makes firmwares available for Chromebooks that can boot things other than ChromeOS. Not all Chromebooks can do full UEFI boots for Windows 10, but the Pixelbook can.

The subreddits to search/watch for new developments and how-tos are /r/chrultrabook and /r/PixelBook.

This post tracks the status of the PixelBook’s Chromebox script and what hardware it has working

Here’s a post where a user describes getting Windows 10 working without any disassembly/write-protect removal.

If you want your PixelBook to boot smoothly into Windows, without having to hit a key combination at the intimidating (and bright!) boot-up warning screen, you would need to take the Pixelbook apart and disable write protection. This guide to back panel replacement would get you to where you could boot the PixelBook without a battery; that’s what you need to do to disable write protection.

I hope you found a good solution, or at least a good use for the PixelBook!

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Actually, this is totally wrong. It is indeed possible for the Pixelbook to run on a flashed bios provided by Mr.Chromebox and running the USB like any other laptop to boot, install Windows 10 1903 (latest).

In short, Pixelbook works just fine aside from the issues:

  • headphone jack doesn’t work no matter the driver installed
  • touchpad a bit choppy but works with gestures and all

Overall, a nice machine to run Windows and capable of dual booting as well.

Google is your best friend with these things but overall, sites to see:

Hardware Write Protect Screw Removal \ Self Flash using a special cable (if you choose to unopen)

Best really should you have questions is in the Reddit forums “Chrubuntu” as this is a hardware fix site.

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Hello Austin Otto,

Unfortunately, there is currently no possibility of installing Windows on Google Pixelbook. No matter how many people claim they have done it, there is no proof. Some people recommend an app for Chrome OS “Crossover on Chrome OS”. I am not sure how good it is, but it is able to use some Windows apps on Google Pixelbook. I don’t personally reccomend it, but it is the closet thing you can get to retrieving Windows based apps. Keep in mind, this app is still in a beta so it is probably super laggy and slow.

Good luck!

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I believe it is possible although I have not done it. You must install a custom bios from

https://mrchromebox.tech/ to do that you must disable the write protector by booting the machine up with the battery disconnected. With the custom BIOS installed you can boot from a USB drive just like any other laptop. I was able to boot into WIN 10 installation just to see if it would work. I then installed fill Ubuntu cause I didn't like all the container crap I was messing with to get a basic Dev environment.

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i recommend checking out r/chrultrabook on reddit. also checking out https://www.mrchromebox.tech will help you a bit

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Austin Otto will be eternally grateful.
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