Quickstart: Create a Windows Virtual Machine in Azure

1. Open your web browser and go to the Azure portal.
2. Sign in with your Azure account credentials.

From the Azure portal home page, select Create a resource.

Figure 1: Azure portal home page with "Create a resource" highlighted.

1. In the Search services and marketplace bar, type Virtual machine and select it from the results.
2. Click Create.

On the Create a virtual machine page, under the Basics tab, do the following:

• Subscription: Select your Azure subscription.
• Resource group: Select Create new and enter a name for your resource group (e.g., myResourceGroup). A resource group is a logical container for your Azure resources.
• Virtual machine name: Enter a name for your virtual machine (e.g., myVM).
• Region: Select a region close to you or your users (e.g., East US).
• Availability options: For this quickstart, select No infrastructure redundancy required.
• Security type: Leave as Standard.
• Image: Select Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition - Gen2 or another Windows Server image of your choice.
• VM architecture: Leave as x64.
• Size: Select a VM size. For testing, Standard_B2s is a cost-effective option.
• Administrator account:
  • Username: Enter an administrator username (e.g., azureuser).
  • Password: Enter a password and confirm it. Ensure the password meets the complexity requirements.
• Inbound port rules: Under Public inbound ports, select Allow selected ports. Then, for Select inbound ports, choose RDP (3389). This allows you to connect to your VM using Remote Desktop.

Figure 2: Basic configuration for a new Azure VM.

Under the Disks tab, you can configure storage. For this quickstart, the default settings are fine. You can choose different OS disk types (e.g., Premium SSD, Standard SSD, Standard HDD) based on your performance and cost needs.

Under the Networking tab, you can configure virtual networks, subnets, and public IP addresses. For this quickstart, the defaults are acceptable. A new virtual network, subnet, and public IP address will be created.

1. Click on the Review + create tab.
2. Azure will validate your configuration. If validation passes, review the summary of your VM settings.
3. Click Create.

Once the deployment is complete, navigate to your virtual machine resource in the Azure portal.

On the Overview page, find the Public IP address and copy it.

Figure 3: VM Overview page displaying the Public IP address.

1. Open your Remote Desktop Connection client on your local computer.
2. In the Computer field, paste the public IP address of your VM.
3. Click Connect.
4. You may see a warning about the identity of the remote computer. Click Yes to continue.
5. When prompted for credentials, click More choices, then Use a different account.
6. Enter the username and password you created in Step 2 (e.g., azureuser and your password).
7. Click OK.

You should now be connected to your Windows virtual machine in Azure.

1. In the Azure portal, navigate to Resource groups.
2. Select the resource group you created (e.g., myResourceGroup).
3. Click Delete resource group.
4. Confirm the deletion by typing the resource group name and clicking Delete.