How Google is Bringing Windows Apps to Chromebooks

Google revealed earlier this year that it plans to support Windows apps on Chromebooks thanks to a partnership with Parallels. It’s a collaboration that will see a full version of Windows boot within Chrome OS, giving businesses the option to run existing desktop apps on Google’s range of lightweight Chromebook devices. In an exclusive interview with The edgeGoogle now details how and why Windows apps get to Chrome OS.

Google wants to give you access to Windows applications when you really need them, as an input and output experience. “The analogy I give is yes, the world is all the latest in home theater and Dolby Atmos, but every now and then you have that old wedding video on a VHS that you have to get to,” says Cyrus Mistry, product manager. group for Chrome OS. “We want to make sure you have that option [for Windows apps] also … so that from time to time you can get that when you need it, but we don’t want that to be the world you live in. “

Google is positioning this new Windows application support in Chrome OS as a great incentive for companies considering moving their employees to Chromebooks. Resellers will be able to group Parallels Desktop with Chromebook Enterprise devices, and IT administrators can easily enable access to Parallels for Chromebooks that are enrolled in Chrome Enterprise Upgrade.

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At first, Parallels Desktop will launch a full copy of Windows, allowing Microsoft’s operating system to join alongside Android and Chrome OS applications. Chrome OS will even redirect certain types of Windows files directly to the Parallels instance to make things a little smoother for users.

“In the future we will have other kinds of things where you won’t even have to run the entire Windows desktop, it will just run the application you need,” Mistry explains. “We are trying to make it as fluid as possible.” This will likely include Parallels’ Coherence feature, which is a mode that currently allows Mac users to run Windows applications just like native Mac applications.

“We work with Parallels because they have really done it before. They understand the concept of running a completely separate operating system within another operating system. They have done it with Mac and they have done it with Linux, “says Mistry.” We also have experience doing it, due to Android, so we already knew what we had to do on our side, but we wanted someone who knew how to do it with Windows “.

Google and Parallels aren’t discussing pricing or exact release dates yet, but Parallels will come at a cost, and companies will obviously need Windows licenses to run these apps. Google is launching a page of interest today, with plans to make Parallels Desktop available to businesses later this year. Businesses will also need relatively modern Chromebooks to run Parallels Desktop. Google is not yet releasing exact minimum specs, but Mistry says Parallels will limit itself to what the company calls Chromebooks “for energy use.” Usually shipped with Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processors and 8GB of RAM for fan-powered devices or 16GB of RAM for fanless models.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While Google has partnered with Parallels to bring Windows apps to Chrome OS, the company had been researching dual-boot options for years before finishing work on the project last year. “We absolutely look at dual boot,” Mistry admits. “There are advantages and disadvantages to both options, but where we landed is that security is absolutely paramount for Chrome OS.”

Mistry says Google “did not want to sacrifice” the security of the Chromebook BIOS, firmware, and the overall startup process. Chromebooks perform a verified boot process to verify that the operating system is safe, and there’s even a second duplicate version of the operating system that Google can switch to if it finds something wrong.

Security has always been a big focus for Chrome OS, and the simplicity of administration has attracted education, where schools in the United States have flocked to Chromebooks. Google now hopes that support for Windows applications will allow it to attract a new audience, particularly as Google says Chromebook business sales have increased 155 percent year-over-year.

“This should provide companies with the best of both worlds. It’s exactly what they had been waiting for, a really easy and secure endpoint to manage, ”says Mistry. “At the same point, they need that exhaust valve. You want to be able to give your employees as safe and easy to use as you can, but at the same time they must be able to do everything. ”

Google’s strategy here is to try to drive businesses to a more streamlined and secure operating system by default and push businesses even further towards cloud and web application adoption. “We are on the right side of the trend,” says Mistry. “No one is dusting off their .NET and C # books, they are building for the web.”

However, Google has not always been successful with its push for web applications. Earlier this year, Google scrapped Chrome apps, web-based apps you could install on Chrome that looked and worked like an app that would launch from your desktop. Google is now turning its attention to progressive web applications (PWA).

Google isn’t alone in its web-based ambitions, either. There are indications that Microsoft is also preparing for a world where Windows applications live in the cloud, ready to be legacy applications for the companies that trust them. Businesses have been streaming Windows apps remotely to iOS and Android for years, but Microsoft has a renewed effort to focus on Windows virtual desktops as part of the company’s plan to combine desktop apps and the Universal Windows Platform. (UWP) under Project Reunion.

Microsoft is also working on Windows 10X, which increasingly resembles a competitor to Chrome OS that will run traditional desktop apps in a sandbox and focus on web apps and new apps for UWP. While Windows 10X was supposed to launch on dual-screen devices, Microsoft has now prioritized the laptop operating system. Windows 10X is now expected to arrive in 2021.

Google naturally wants to get everyone away from Windows and companies to use the operating system less. “If you’re the type of person who has 80 or 90 percent in the browser, which by the way is beginning to be almost all workers, then this is what you want them to do,” says Mistry. “She wants them at a safe browser endpoint, but then she escapes to do some Windows and comes back.”

Both Google and Microsoft have similar security goals that will shape the future of Windows. Google plans to take advantage of its Chrome OS security benefits and the unique ability to have a desktop browser, a complete ecosystem of Android mobile applications, and now access Windows applications. Obviously, Microsoft is trying to simplify Windows with Windows 10X, and the company can take advantage of its native support for Windows applications more than any other operating system.

Google still has a long way to go with Chrome OS to tackle some basic productivity concepts. Critics claim that Chrome OS has “stalled” with an overly restrictive view. Parallels Desktop is an example of Google’s goal to address a gap in Chrome OS, and if the search giant can seamlessly combine Windows apps with Chrome OS in the future, it definitely makes Chromebooks much more attractive to businesses. they depend on a legacy line of business applications. It’s a big Yes Given the disappointing status of Android mobile apps on Chrome OS, but Windows desktop apps could stand a better chance with the help of Parallels.