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Preparing for a ChromeOS migration starts with clarity. You need to know which applications exist in your environment, how they run, and whether they are relevant to your future state. When even a handful of applications remain unidentified, planning slows down, risk increases, and confidence drops.
The latest release of the ChromeOS Readiness Tool introduces File Path Retrieval, a new capability designed to remove uncertainty around unknown applications. It delivers deeper visibility where it matters while keeping data collection tightly scoped, secure, and respectful of user privacy.
During readiness assessments, IT teams frequently encounter applications that standard detection methods cannot immediately classify. These tools often appear as unknown entries in reports, leaving administrators to guess their origin, purpose, or importance.
File Path Retrieval closes this gap by collecting a small, targeted set of technical metadata that allows unknown applications to be accurately identified. With this release, the ChromeOS Readiness Tool captures:
Application file paths that show where an executable resides on the system
Product names that help validate the software’s identity
Process names that indicate which executable is responsible for the activity
This added context transforms unknown applications into actionable entries. Teams can confirm legitimacy, determine business relevance, and make informed decisions about compatibility or remediation without extended manual investigation.
Because file paths and process information are involved, it is natural to ask whether this release introduces new security or privacy risks. File Path Retrieval was designed with that concern in mind.
The feature does not access file contents, scan directories, or collect user-generated data. It does not capture personal documents, application data, or anything typed, viewed, or created by an end user. The information collected is limited to technical identifiers required for application classification.
In practical terms, the ChromeOS Readiness Tool learns what is running and where it originates from, not what users are doing with those applications.
The ChromeOS Readiness Tool is not designed to monitor users. It intentionally avoids collecting:
Usernames, passwords, or authentication data
Keystrokes, mouse activity, or screen content
Personal files, emails, or browsing content
Financial, health, or other sensitive personal information
This separation keeps assessments focused on systems and applications, not individuals.
All data collected by the ChromeOS Readiness Tool is protected through layered security controls.
Data is encrypted locally on devices and remains encrypted during transfer and storage. Access to readiness results is restricted to authorized administrators, and the dashboard requires deployment-specific credentials that stay within the organization’s control.
Deployment options allow data to remain within approved storage locations, whether on premises, in cloud storage, or both. Temporary logs on devices are uploaded only after encryption and resume securely if devices go offline.
File Path Retrieval gives IT teams the missing context they need to move ChromeOS migrations forward with confidence. It removes ambiguity around unknown applications while maintaining clear boundaries around data scope, privacy, and security.
By delivering deeper insight without expanding risk, this release reinforces the ChromeOS Readiness Tool’s guiding principle: provide the visibility required for informed decisions, while respecting user trust every step of the way.
Preparing your organization for a transition to ChromeOS requires complete clarity on your current application landscape. Even small gaps in application knowledge can slow planning, create risk, and undermine confidence in migration decisions. The latest update to the ChromeOS Readiness Tool is designed to address this, providing greater precision in identifying, classifying, and managing applications.
This update introduces the File Path Retrieval feature, a powerful enhancement to our Data Collectors that removes the uncertainty around "unknown" applications and gives IT teams a clearer, more actionable view of their environment.
A common obstacle during OS migration is dealing with applications that aren’t immediately recognized by standard detection methods. Without specific information, it’s difficult to determine whether a tool is essential, redundant, or compatible with a new OS. This uncertainty can slow migration timelines and increase risk.
The File Path Retrieval feature addresses this by capturing detailed execution-level metadata for applications previously categorized as "unknown." The tool now collects:
Application File Paths: Know exactly where each application resides on the system.
Product Names: Capture the official software branding to confirm legitimacy and purpose.
Process Names: Understand the specific executable driving the application activity.
By providing this level of detail, IT teams can confidently classify every application, reducing guesswork and helping prioritize migration decisions.
Detailed metadata collection isn’t just about visibility, it also improves traceability and security. With File Path Retrieval, every application is identifiable and accountable, enabling teams to map application usage accurately across the organization. This ensures migration planning is both reliable and data-driven.
Security and privacy remain central to this update. While the feature collects technical metadata, all data is handled with robust safeguards, including Symmetric and Asymmetric encryption and OAuth 2.0 authentication, so organizations can improve insight without compromising sensitive information.
With File Path Retrieval, IT teams gain a more complete, accurate understanding of their software landscape, which translates into:
Faster decision-making: Less time spent investigating unknown applications.
Reduced migration risk: Clearer insight into compatibility and usage patterns.
Improved operational confidence: Detailed, traceable data support every stage of your ChromeOS transition.
In a complex IT environment, small gaps in application visibility can have significant consequences. The ChromeOS Readiness Tool’s latest update ensures no application is overlooked, providing the clarity and confidence needed to move forward with your migration strategy.
By equipping teams with deeper insights and secure, traceable data, File Path Retrieval empowers organizations to plan ChromeOS transitions with precision and confidenceturning unknowns into actionable intelligence.
Accurate readiness assessments depend on current data. As application landscapes evolve, even small delays in updating compatibility information can affect reporting confidence and decision-making.
This week, we are introducing Database Sync for the ChromeOS Readiness Tool Report Generator, a new capability that gives you direct control over when your application compatibility data is refreshed. With this update, reports can reflect the latest available insights at the moment they are generated.
In the fast-moving world of software, new applications and updates are released every day. To make informed decisions about moving to ChromeOS, teams need access to the most current compatibility data.
Previously, staying up to date relied on scheduled tool updates. While effective, this approach could create a gap between when new compatibility information was added and when it appeared in reports.
With the new Configuration section, you can now manually trigger a database sync whenever updates are available. This means:
Instant access to the latest application compatibility data
Better decisions based on the most recent database entries
No delays caused by waiting for a full tool update to reflect new applications
For teams working on tight timelines or managing frequently changing application inventories, this added flexibility supports faster and more confident planning.
To support Database Sync, we have added a dedicated Configuration tab to the Report Generator. The experience is clean and intuitive, giving you visibility into your data without adding complexity.
From here, you can manage your readiness database in just a few steps:
Check your version View your current readiness database version before generating reports.
Verify updates See whether your database is already up to date or if a newer version is available.
Sync on demand Select the Sync Database option to pull the latest compatibility data directly into the Report Generator.
Once the sync is complete, the updated data is immediately available.
Designed to Fit Existing Workflows
Database Sync was designed to complement how teams already use the Report Generator. There are no changes to how reports are created, reviewed, or shared.
Instead, the new Configuration section adds a simple step that helps confirm your data is current before reporting. This supports consistency across assessments, especially for projects that span multiple phases or reporting cycles.
As more organizations evaluate ChromeOS for modern work environments, expectations around readiness data continue to rise. Stakeholders rely on accurate compatibility insights to guide planning discussions and next steps.
By introducing Database Sync, the ChromeOS Readiness Tool removes uncertainty around data freshness and places control directly with the user. Teams can spend less time validating inputs and more time focusing on analysis and outcomes.
We encourage you to explore the new Configuration section and begin syncing your database as part of your regular assessment process.
This update is designed to make your readiness journey smoother, and it is an important step forward for the Report Generator. If you encounter any issues or have suggestions for improvement, we would love to hear from you.
Update your ChromeOS Readiness Tool, visit the new Configuration section, and start generating reports powered by the latest compatibility data.
Real estate closings are stressful, document-heavy, and prone to human error. For title and escrow professionals, every transaction involves countless emails, documents, and verification steps. The challenge is not the complexity itself, but the sheer volume of repetitive, high-stakes tasks.
Qualia recognized this and set out to transform the experience. By embedding Google Cloud’s Gemini into their platform, they built Qualia Clear, an agentic AI system designed to automate and streamline title and escrow workflows at scale. The result: tasks that once took hours can now be completed in minutes, with real-time error detection that prevents costly mistakes before they happen.
During beta, Qualia Clear processed over 100 billion tokens across 1.1 million emails and 1.8 million documents, automating repetitive processes while maintaining accuracy. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles document processing and summarization, while Gemini 2.5 Pro drives the conversational interface and executes task requests. Flex capacity from Google Cloud eliminated previous rate-limiting bottlenecks, allowing Qualia to scale quickly and reliably.
The system also detects errors in real time from misallocated commissions to unreleased mortgage liens, catching issues that could otherwise delay closings. By consolidating information from multiple sources and applying agentic logic, the platform provides context-aware guidance and execution, giving teams immediate answers while they continue working.
Qualia Clear shows what happens when workflows are fully visible, structured, and ready for agentic intervention. The key insight is not just automation it is understanding where intelligent agents can step in and create value without disrupting operations.
This principle aligns directly with ChromeOS Readiness Tool’s upcoming Agentic Workflow Assessment. Just as Qualia identified the repetitive, high-impact processes in real estate closings, the Readiness Tool helps enterprises uncover hidden workflows, map dependencies, and highlight opportunities where agentic workflows could make a real difference.
The Agentic Workflow Assessment gives IT leaders a clear view of how work flows across applications and devices. Teams can:
Visualize real workflows to see where employees spend the most time
Map application dependencies and understand workflow sequences
Spot critical time sinks to prioritize high-impact automation opportunities
Workflows that meet agentic criteria are classified as Agentic Ready, helping teams plan where automation could deliver measurable value using tools such as Google ADK or n8n.
Qualia Clear transformed real estate transactions by automating processes that were previously slow, error-prone, and emotionally stressful. The ChromeOS Readiness Tool brings that same philosophy to enterprise IT: gain visibility, understand workflow context, and identify where agentic workflows can create impact before you even start building them.
With agentic workflow readiness insights coming soon, enterprises can move from guessing where automation might help to confidently planning intelligent workflows that improve efficiency, reduce errors, and unlock productivity across the organization.
Enterprise teams are busy. Yet much of that effort is spent repeating the same actions across applications, day after day, without a clear view of where time actually goes. As organizations think about agentic workflows, the challenge is rarely ambition. It is visibility.
Before any agent can take action, you need to understand how work truly happens across your devices and applications. That is the gap many enterprises face today, and it is exactly where the ChromeOS Readiness Tool is expanding its role.
Deda.Tech, a global IT service provider, encountered a problem many enterprises recognize. Their systems worked, but not together. Requests are often moved between applications and platforms, requiring numerous manual steps, multiple handoffs, and limited transparency.
By making workflows visible and orchestrated, they were able to compress tasks that once took days into minutes. More importantly, teams could finally see how work moved end-to-end. That clarity became the foundation for smarter decisions about what to streamline next.
This is not just a success story. It is a preview of what becomes possible when organizations understand their workflows before trying to optimize them.
You can read more about their story from https://n8n.io/case-studies/dedatech/
Agentic workflows promise meaningful gains. Software agents that can observe patterns, coordinate actions across applications, and reduce repetitive effort. But many initiatives stall early because teams do not know where agents should step in.
Hidden routines. Fragmented application usage. Unknown dependencies. These blind spots make it difficult to identify high-impact opportunities and even harder to scale them.
Agentic readiness is about removing those blind spots.
The ChromeOS Readiness Tool is introducing Agentic Workflow Assessment to help organizations uncover how real work happens across enterprise devices. This upcoming capability moves beyond application compatibility and begins to surface workflow intelligence.
Instead of guessing which processes could benefit from agentic workflows, your dashboard will start highlighting them. You gain a clear, data-backed starting point for exploring agentic-driven initiatives with confidence.
With the upcoming dashboard upgrade, teams will be able to:
Visualize real workflows and see where employees consistently invest time
Map application dependencies to understand which tools are involved and in what sequence
Spot critical time sinks, with workflows exceeding 12 hours, flagged as high-impact opportunities
These insights shift conversations from ideas to evidence. Instead of debating where to start, teams can prioritize based on real usage patterns.
Not every workflow is suitable for agentic execution. The Agentic Workflow Assessment evaluates whether a workflow can be transformed into an agentic workflow using innovative solutions available today, such as Google ADK and n8n.
Workflows that meet this criteria are classified as Agentic Ready. This gives IT and transformation teams a practical signal of where agentic workflows could deliver measurable value, without overextending effort.
Deda.Tech showed what happens when workflows are made visible, and flow is restored. Agentic Workflow Assessment brings that same principle to the enterprise at scale.
Coming soon to the ChromeOS Readiness Tool, this capability helps uncover hidden work, highlight high-impact opportunities, and prepare your organization for intelligent workflows that move work forward with purpose.
As organizations modernize their IT infrastructure, Google’s ChromeOS ecosystem offers two powerful options: ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex. Both provide speed, security, and simplicity, but their differences can influence deployment strategy, cost, and device management.
ChromeOS is Google’s purpose-built operating system for Chromebooks and Chromeboxes. Designed for hardware optimized for cloud-first workflows, it delivers a seamless experience for applications, collaboration tools, and enterprise management.
ChromeOS devices benefit from optimized hardware integration, leveraging features like touchscreens, stylus support, and verified boot for consistent performance. Automatic updates keep devices secure and up-to-date without user intervention, while enterprise management through the Admin Console allows centralized control over devices, users, and apps. Users can also access a wide app ecosystem, including web apps, Android apps, and Linux applications.
In short, ChromeOS provides a reliable, fast, and low-maintenance experience for cloud-based productivity.
ChromeOS Flex extends the benefits of ChromeOS to existing Windows and macOS devices, giving older hardware a second life. It offers a cost-effective, sustainable solution for organizations that want to modernize without replacing all legacy devices.
Flex is lightweight and flexible, reviving older PCs and Macs with minimal system requirements. It supports centralized management and integrates with Google Workspace, offering many of ChromeOS’s security and management features. While performance may vary depending on the device, Flex provides core ChromeOS capabilities such as sandboxing, verified boot, and automatic updates, helping organizations move toward a cloud-first model efficiently.
The differences between ChromeOS and ChromeOS Flex primarily come down to hardware, performance, and optimization. ChromeOS runs on purpose-built devices with full hardware integration, ensuring consistent speed and reliability. ChromeOS Flex runs on legacy hardware, so performance can vary depending on device specifications. ChromeOS offers complete enterprise management and broader app support, while Flex provides partial integration and supports core web and Android apps.
The ChromeOS Readiness Tool helps organizations plan their transition with clarity. It evaluates device compatibility, application readiness, and potential configuration needs, providing actionable insights for both native ChromeOS deployments and ChromeOS Flex installations. By using the tool, IT teams can identify gaps, prioritize devices, and streamline migration planning, making modernization smoother and more predictable.
Choosing the right solution depends on organizational needs.
ChromeOS is ideal for businesses seeking reliable, high-performance devices designed for cloud-first workflows, with long-term support and full management capabilities.
ChromeOS Flex is suited for organizations looking to extend the life of existing PCs and Macs, enabling cloud-first benefits without a full hardware refresh.
Google’s ChromeOS ecosystem offers flexibility for enterprises and educational institutions modernizing IT infrastructure. Whether deploying brand-new Chromebooks with ChromeOS or revitalizing older devices with ChromeOS Flex, organizations gain access to secure, efficient, and cloud-first computing. Leveraging the ChromeOS Readiness Tool ensures both options can be assessed effectively, helping teams make informed decisions and achieve a smoother migration journey.
Migrating to a cloud-first operating system like ChromeOS is an attractive move for IT leaders looking for stronger security, lower costs, and simpler management. Yet one question consistently slows progress: Is our environment actually ready?
The ChromeOS Readiness Tool brings clarity to that decision. It provides a clear, data-backed view of your current environment so migration planning is grounded in facts, not assumptions.
The tool automatically scans your environment and consolidates critical readiness insights, removing manual audits and fragmented data.
Application Readiness shows how your existing apps will perform on ChromeOS. Applications are classified as ChromeOS Ready, Possibly Ready, Blockers, or Unknown, allowing teams to quickly identify compatibility gaps and plan next steps.
Device Compatibility highlights devices that are Ready to Switch, those requiring verification, and blocked devices. ChromeOS Flex readiness helps extend the life of existing PCs, reducing unnecessary hardware replacement.
Peripheral Readiness validates whether essential hardware, such as monitors, printers, and scanners, will work on ChromeOS. The assessment also includes barcode scanners, receipt printers, and label printers, helping teams avoid operational surprises after migration.
The ChromeOS Readiness Tool is built with enterprise security at its core.
All collected data remains under your organization’s control. AES and RSA encryption protect data at rest and in transit. Access to reports is restricted through a private key, meaning only authorized administrators can view results. The tool also aligns with GDPR principles, supporting responsible data handling.
The tool adapts to different IT environments without added complexity.
The Enterprise Flow supports Active Directory environments, with data stored locally or in Google Cloud Platform. Other deployment options support Unified Endpoint Management platforms such as Microsoft Intune, uploading data directly to the Google Cloud Platform without internal storage media.
The ChromeOS Readiness Tool is evolving to support deeper insights into how work gets done.
Workspace Readiness will help teams understand how current work patterns align with Google Workspace by analyzing usage behaviors and mapping existing tools to Workspace alternatives.
Agentic Workflow Assessment will highlight high-impact, repetitive workflows and identify those that are agentic-ready. This capability will help organizations spot opportunities to rethink how work flows across teams.
Migration decisions are business decisions. A Forrester Total Economic Impact study found that organizations switching to ChromeOS achieved a 208 percent return on investment and $6.8 million in net present value over three years. By identifying reusable devices and reducing migration complexity, the ChromeOS Readiness Tool helps organizations move faster toward these outcomes.
The ChromeOS Readiness Tool replaces uncertainty with insight. With clear visibility into applications, devices, peripherals, and what is coming next, IT leaders can move forward with confidence and clarity.
When organizations evaluate ChromeOS, application compatibility is often the deciding factor. The ChromeOS Readiness Tool addresses this challenge through its Application Database, a purpose-built intelligence layer that powers every readiness assessment.
Rather than relying on static assumptions, the Application Database continuously evolves to reflect real-world enterprise environments. It enables IT teams to move beyond guesswork and make informed decisions grounded in structured compatibility data.
At the heart of every assessment, the ChromeOS Readiness Tool compares installed applications against its Application Database. This comparison determines how each application aligns with ChromeOS deployment options and surfaces clear readiness outcomes.
Applications are classified into four readiness categories:
Chrome Ready for applications that are fully compatible with ChromeOS
Possibly Ready for applications that meet most ChromeOS requirements but may require configuration or additional review as some features may not function as expected and should be validated before migration.
Blocker for applications that are incompatible and may require alternatives such as virtualization
Unknown when an application is not yet recognized by the database
This structured classification gives IT teams immediate visibility into which applications can move forward, which require planning, and where potential risks exist.
Enterprise environments often include niche, regional, or proprietary applications that do not exist in a global compatibility repository. When the ChromeOS Readiness Tool encounters such applications, it intentionally avoids making assumptions and marks them as Unknown.
To improve coverage and accuracy over time, the tool follows a consent-based feedback approach. With administrator approval, the process name of an unknown application can be shared. This information is used solely to strengthen the Application Database and refine future assessments.
This approach allows the database to expand responsibly while maintaining transparency and trust with customers.
Each update to the Application Database follows a structured internal validation process designed to maintain consistency and accuracy.
Once an unknown application is identified and its process name is collected with consent, the application is reviewed by the QA team in a controlled environment. The team downloads and installs the application and begins a detailed compatibility evaluation.
As part of this process, Gemini and other AI-assisted analysis tools are used to analyze application behavior and compatibility indicators. These insights help accelerate classification while maintaining a consistent evaluation framework.
In parallel, the application is evaluated for Cameyo compatibility, which helps determine whether virtualization provides a viable access path when native ChromeOS compatibility is not available.
Based on these combined insights, the application is assigned an updated readiness status. It may be classified as Chrome Ready, Possibly Ready, Blocker, or remain Unknown if additional validation is required. Once validated, this information is added to the Application Database so future assessments benefit from the updated intelligence.
No global database can fully account for every proprietary or internally developed application. Recognizing this, the ChromeOS Readiness Tool includes a Custom Readiness Status capability.
For applications marked as Unknown, administrators can manually define readiness based on their own testing and institutional knowledge. This allows organizations to reflect their unique application landscape accurately while continuing to use the tool as a centralized source of readiness insight.
This balance of centralized intelligence and administrative control helps teams maintain momentum without sacrificing accuracy.
The Application Database is more than a reference list. It is a living system that improves with every assessment, every validated application, and every feedback loop.
For IT decision-makers, this translates into clearer migration planning, fewer surprises, and greater confidence when evaluating ChromeOS. By combining continuous database refinement, structured validation, and administrator flexibility, the ChromeOS Readiness Tool transforms application compatibility from a barrier into a measurable, manageable step forward.
As ChromeOS adoption grows, the intelligence behind readiness assessments continues to evolve alongside it, supporting informed decisions at every stage of the transition.
Once you have a crystal-clear map of your real-world workflows, the next step is connecting those insights to the right agentic tools. This is where modern orchestration platforms like Google ADK and n8n shine, each offering distinct advantages for building intelligent solutions.
Agentic solutions require a backbone platform that allows AI agents to:
Interact with the World: Call external APIs, access databases, and trigger actions in various business applications
Reason and Plan: Execute the core cognitive capabilities of the AI agent, including goal-oriented decision-making.
Manage State: Remember context and progress across multiple steps and human interactions.
This is the job of the orchestration tool.
The Google Agent Development Kit (ADK) is a code-first, framework-based approach designed for deep integration within the Google Cloud and AI ecosystem.
Connecting the "Brain" to the "Hands": ADK provides a robust framework to structure an agent's behaviorist planning, tool-use, and reflection capabilities.
Actionability from Workflow Insights: Your workflow map might reveal, "The delay is caused by waiting for a SQL query result and then a Slack approval." ADK allows you to define a precise tool-calling mechanism so the agent can execute that SQL query and integrate with Slack directly, managing complex decision logic rather than just executing actions.
n8n is a popular low-code/visual platform known for its vast library of integrations and open-source flexibility.
Breadth of Connectivity: If your workflow assessment identifies 20 different systems your process touches, n8n’s 1,000+ connectors offer a fast, low-code way to build the "tools" your AI agent will use to interact across the enterprise.
Hybrid Capability: n8n allows teams to blend traditional rule-based processes with complex, intelligent agent tasks. This hybrid approach is ideal for enterprises augmenting existing processes with agentic solutions.
By linking your workflow intelligence findings, your identified bottlenecks, and system dependencies with the orchestration capabilities of ADK or n8n, you move from understanding what is happening to designing reliable, adaptable, and goal-oriented solutions.
While ADK and n8n provide the capabilities to act on workflow insights, the critical first step is knowing where to start. The ChromeOS Readiness Tool will soon introduce the Agentic Workflow Assessment, designed to give IT leaders a clear view of how work actually happens across devices and applications.
By surfacing real-world workflows, highlighting high-effort tasks, and mapping application dependencies, this feature will provide the actionable insights needed to prioritize where agentic solutions, whether via ADK, n8n, or other platforms, will have the most impact. Teams will be able to connect their workflow findings to the right tools confidently, ensuring that intelligent agents are applied where they matter most.
This upcoming feature complements workflow intelligence efforts, bridging the gap between insight and execution. It helps organizations move from understanding their work patterns to designing adaptive, goal-oriented solutions that align with real enterprise processes.