ADVANCEDPROJECTS
126 OCTOBER 2019|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 380
hardware), but is part of the intended
‘distraction-free’and focused design.
LIVEAND KICKING
It’s important at this point to saythat
you’re actually running CloudReady as a
‘Live CD’ version: the entire operating
system is running from the USB drive.
This gives you achance to test CloudReady
without actually touching anything on the
hard disk (your data and the operating
system). However,italso means that any
changes you make –such as installing
apps and changing settings -will be lost
should you choose to install CloudReady
to that hard disk.
While CloudReady has
arelatively short list of
certified compatible hardware
(seeguide.neverware.com/
supported-devices), as long as
this Live version runs on your
hardware,you shouldn’t have
significant problems.
One set of features you
might miss on alaptop are
the Fn function keys, for
brightness, volume,screen
switch and so on. Youcan
recover some of these
functions through the
settings menu. To do this,
open the Chromebook Status
menu (the lozenge-shaped
area at the bottom right),
choose Settings (the cog icon), then
Keyboard, and then enable Treat top-row
keys as function keys. However,wefound
that the symbols marked on the keys didn’t
reflect the function given by CloudReady: the
brightness up keydimmed the brightness,
while the volume keys switched displays or
closed windows. Your laptop might be less
badly affected, so test this before committing
to using CloudReady permanently.
Should you wish to use CloudReady
permanently,open the Cloudbook Status and
click Install OS. CloudReady will warn you to
back up any data on the hard disk, and to
click Install CloudReady if you’ve done that.
The process of installing CloudReady
should take less than 20 minutes, after
which the PC will shut down automatically.
Youdon’t need to do anything during the
install process, so you can just leave the PC
and do something else.
Once the PC has powered down, you can
remove the USB drive and power it back up.
This will bring you back to the Welcome
screen. Some non-personal settings will have
been transferred, but not your Wi-Fi or
Google account credentials. It’s still worth
checking the language and accessibility
options just in case.
⬆CloudReady looks more or less like a
conventional Windows-style desktop
➡The circular Launcher button
at the bottom leftlets you
open applications
