Create a Windows Server VM instance in Compute Engine

Learn how to create a Windows Server virtual machine (VM) instance by using the Google Cloud console.

To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Guide me

Pricing

  • Windows Server images are premium images, and using them results in additional charges.

  • Windows Server VMs are not included with the Free Trial.

Before you begin

  1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

  2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Go to project selector

  3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  4. Make sure that you have the following role or roles on the project: Compute Instance Admin (v1), Compute Security Admin, Service Account User, Service Usage Admin

    Check for the roles

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

      Go to IAM
    2. Select the project.

    3. In the Principal column, find all rows that identify you or a group that you're included in. To learn which groups you're included in, contact your administrator.

    4. For all rows that specify or include you, check the Role column to see whether the list of roles includes the required roles.

    Grant the roles

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

      Go to IAM
    2. Select the project.
    3. Click Grant access.

    4. In the New principals field, enter your user identifier. This is typically the email address for a Google Account.

    5. In the Select a role list, select a role.
    6. To grant additional roles, click Add another role and add each additional role.
    7. Click Save.

  5. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

    Go to project selector

  6. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

  7. Make sure that you have the following role or roles on the project: Compute Instance Admin (v1), Compute Security Admin, Service Account User, Service Usage Admin

    Check for the roles

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

      Go to IAM
    2. Select the project.

    3. In the Principal column, find all rows that identify you or a group that you're included in. To learn which groups you're included in, contact your administrator.

    4. For all rows that specify or include you, check the Role column to see whether the list of roles includes the required roles.

    Grant the roles

    1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

      Go to IAM
    2. Select the project.
    3. Click Grant access.

    4. In the New principals field, enter your user identifier. This is typically the email address for a Google Account.

    5. In the Select a role list, select a role.
    6. To grant additional roles, click Add another role and add each additional role.
    7. Click Save.

  8. Enable the Compute Engine API.

    Enable Compute Engine API

  9. If you aren't using Windows on your local machine, install an RDP client such as Chrome Remote Desktop.

Create a Windows Server VM instance

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Create an instance page.

    Go to Create an instance

  2. In the Boot disk section, click Change to begin configuring your boot disk.
  3. On the Public images tab, choose Windows Server from the Operating system list.
  4. Choose Windows Server 2019 Datacenter from the Version list.
  5. Click Select.
  6. In the Firewall section, select Allow HTTP traffic.
  7. To create the VM, click Create.

Allow a short time for the VM instance to start. After the VM instance is ready, it is listed on the VM instances page with a green status icon.

Connect to the VM instance

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.

    Go to VM instances

  2. Under the Name column, click the name of your VM instance.

  3. Under the Remote access section, click Set Windows password.

  4. Specify a username, then click Set to generate a new password for this Windows Server VM. Save the username and password so you can log into the VM.

  5. Install the Chrome Remote Desktop service on your VM.

  6. Connect to your VM instance using your choice of graphical or command line tools.

Clean up

To avoid incurring charges to your Google Cloud account for the resources used on this page, follow these steps.

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instances page.

    Go to VM instances

  2. Click the name of the VM instance you created.

  3. At the top of the VM instance's details page, click Delete.

What's next