CloudReady could be the perfect answer for those continuing to stick with, say, Windows 7 PCs – despite Microsoft having stopped delivering free patches since January 15. Importantly, CloudReady still gets patches and fixes just like Chrome OS, served up every six weeks. //

The Home edition is free, does not integrate with Google Admin Console and lacks technical support. The education subscription costs $20 per year per device with one year of technical support, while the enterprise option costs $49 per year per device. The paid-for options include one year of technical support. //

There are two notable catches with switching to CloudReady. After installing it, there's no returning to Windows, so users should make a backup of their files.

Also, after transitioning, accessing a local drive becomes difficult because this Chrome-OS variant relies almost entirely on Google Drive for storage.