Quickstart using a Windows VM

This page explains how to create a Windows virtual machine instance in Compute Engine using the Google Cloud Console.

Before you begin

1. Sign in to your Google Account.

   If you don't already have one, sign up for a new account.

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

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to the project selector page

3. Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project. Learn how to confirm billing is enabled for your project.

4. Enable the Compute Engine API.

   Enable the API

5. If you aren't using Windows on your local machine, install a third-party RDP client such as Chrome RDP by FusionLabs.

Create a virtual machine instance

1. In the Cloud Console, go to the VM Instances page.

   Go to the VM Instances page

2. Click Create instance.
3. In the Boot disk section, click Change to begin configuring your boot disk.

4. On the OS images tab, choose Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter.

5. Click Select.
6. In the Firewall section, select Allow HTTP traffic.
7. Click Create to create the instance.

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

Connect to your instance

1. Go to the VM Instances page in the Google Cloud Console.

   Go to the VM Instances page

2. Under the Name column, click the name of your virtual machine instance.
3. Under the Remote Access section, click the Set Windows Password button.
4. Specify a username, then click Set to generate a new password for this Windows instance. Save the username and password so you can log into the instance.
5. Connect to your 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 in this quickstart, follow these steps.

1. Go to the VM Instances page in the Google Cloud Console.

   Go to the VM Instances page

2. Click the name of the instance you created.
3. At the top of the instance’s details page, click Delete.

What's next

• Set up a basic web server on your new instance.
• Deploy an ASP.NET app to your VM instance.
• Learn how to create and manage Windows instances using the gcloud command-line tool and API.
• Set up Active Directory on Compute Engine.