Google has an easy way to breathe new life into your old PC

Last month, Back Market and Google introduced a low-friction new way to get some extra mileage out of older PCs and Macs: ready-made ChromeOS Flex USB keys that make it simple to get Google’s desktop OS up and running on computers that are out of software support or struggling to run heavier operating systems. Those USB keys are now up for sale — and they’re surprisingly cheap.

Google announced availability of the new USB-A keys in a blog post. They’re being sold through Back Market for just a few bucks, and come with simple instructions explaining how to use them to boot ChromeOS on a Windows PC or Mac.

ChromeOS Flex is a version of the operating system intended to be booted on computers that initially shipped with a different OS. It’s similar to the version you’ll get on a Chromebook, though there are some differences — Flex doesn’t come with support for Android apps, for example, making computers running it even more reliant on web apps than native ChromeOS devices. Given it’s often deployed on older machines, though, the cloud-focused nature of Flex is easy to see as an advantage.

The keys are already sold out on Back Market after only about 24 hours of sales, and we don’t know when they’ll be back in stock. Given they were going for all of $3, that’s not really surprising.

If you’re interested in sticking ChromeOS Flex on your own aging computer, Google maintains a list of PC and Mac models that are officially supported. Ideally the keys will be back in stock soon. There are other ways to get ChromeOS Flex, though: you can make your own USB installer, and Google’s got step-by-step instructions.