Chromebooks Have an Expiration Date. Here is Tips on how to Test Yours

Chromebooks are nice for a lot of issues and so they’re typically inexpensive than Home windows laptops and Apple MacBooks. However earlier than you pounce on one, there’s an essential date to examine first: a Chromebook’s expiration date, aka its Auto Replace Expiration date. 

Chromebooks routinely handle updates so that they at all times have the most recent options, together with safety updates. However as a result of Google can solely assure ChromeOS and browser characteristic assist on non-Google {hardware} for therefore lengthy, each gadget at present has a date on which it stops receiving updates — its AUE date. 

If you happen to’re concerned with a selected mannequin with an unbelievable low value, it is best to search out out the AUE date before you purchase. (It is also a good suggestion to do that when you’re shopping for a used Chromebook or passing on a gently used one to a pal or member of the family.) The excellent news is, Google makes it extraordinarily simple to search out out the date for any Chromebook. 

Tips on how to examine an AUE before you purchase

Getting the AUE date for any Chromebook is so simple as discovering its identify on an inventory. Google maintains a full listing of AUE dates for all fashions. Simply head to the listing, discover the make of your Chromebook or the one you are trying to purchase or go alongside. Click on on the make and the mannequin listing will drop down with its AUE date. 

In keeping with the coverage web page, Google will publish a mannequin’s AUE date after its launch, so you must at all times be capable to discover a particular Chromebook earlier than making a buying resolution.

Learn extra: Finest Chromebook 2023: 8 Choices to Match Any Finances

Tips on how to examine your AUE in your Chromebook

Already personal a Chromebook and wish to understand how lengthy you’ve for updates? You may examine in your mannequin on Google’s listing that I famous above or you could find it proper in your Chromebook. There are a number of methods to get to the knowledge, however primarily it’s a must to dive into the settings menu to search out it. 

Open up your Chromebook’s settings menu by clicking on the time within the decrease proper of your display after which clicking on the Settings cog icon. On the backside of the left navigation panel (you could have to click on the three bars on the prime left to open the panel), you will see About ChromeOS. Click on that, after which on Extra particulars. That is the place you will discover your AUE date. 

Nevertheless, now that it is within the About ChromeOS space, you too can search your Chromebook for it and go straight there. Press the Search key, assuming you have not modified it to operate as a Caps Lock key, and seek for “About ChromeOS.” It’s also possible to two-finger swipe up from the underside of your display to carry up a search bar, or there is a search icon on the prime proper of the settings menu you need to use. As I stated, there are a number of methods to get to the information. 

What occurs when a Chromebook reaches its AUE? 

Presently, as soon as your AUE date arrives, the Chromebook will not obtain software program updates from Google. These embrace safety updates, bug fixes and new options. And with out these updates, issues like apps and browser extensions may not operate correctly. So whilst you can nonetheless use a Chromebook previous its AUE date, its usefulness will deteriorate. 

A part of the problem is that the ChromeOS and Chrome browser are deeply related. For the time being, which means not getting a ChromeOS replace additionally means not getting a browser replace. Google, nonetheless, appears to be at work on separating the 2. With the 2 separated, you may miss out on new OS options, however the Chrome browser would keep updated. Google CEO Sundar Pichai might have even hinted at this separation in a tweet in March. 

Google can also be engaged on extending these dates and, as of November 2020, it introduced new fashions would have longer lives, which roughly interprets to wherever from seven to eight years or extra. Nevertheless, the date varies from gadget to gadget and is not decided by when the gadget was launched or by while you purchased it.