How to Create a Windows Virtual Machine in Azure: A Step by Step Guide
Written by Vivian Paul on November 28, 2024
Virtual machines are computer systems created using software on one physical computer in order to emulate the functionality of another separate physical computer; in other words, they are digitized version of a physical computer.
Connecting Windows 10 pro virtual machine to your computer system is a way of providing flexibility and convenience of working in two separate computing environments with one computer. This means running two operating systems in one computer system.
In this article, we will be showing steps on how to create a Windows 10 pro virtual machine on Azure and connect it to a Windows 11.
We will also discuss or demonstrate how to stop, start, delete and dissociate a virtual machine.
SIGN IN TO AZURE PORTAL
As we are using Azure for the virtual machine creation, you will need to have an Azure account to get started. If you do not have an account, you can click on this link to sign up. Login to your account with your email and password to get started with creating a Linux virtual machine.
CREATE YOUR VIRTUAL MACHINE
At the top left of the page (under Azure services), click on “Virtual machines”
When the page opens up, click on “Create”
Click on the “Azure virtual machine” highlighted
You will be directed to the Basics page where you will have to customize some of the Project details and Instance details.
Project Details
In the project details category, we have the subscription and resource group.
A. Subscription
Azure subscription gives you access to use Microsoft Azure; which can be free (trial before upgrading to a paid subscription), Pay-As-You-Go or Enterprise agreement. With an Azure subscription, individuals or organizations can use and benefit from the various services and resources provided by Azure at a cost depending on your type of subscription.
In this demonstration, we will leave the default subscription, “Azure subscription 1” as it is.
B. Resource Group
Azure Resource Group is a logical container or folder that helps you to organize and manage your azure resources such as virtual machines, web apps, databases and storage accounts.
A typical example is a library where books are categorised or sorted and organized according to topics, courses, authors etc; which makes them easy to find or locate by the users.
Click on "Create new" to create a new resource group or click on the drop down menu to select one (usually pre-existing).
Instance Details
a. Name your virtual machine
b. Region: Click on the drop down menu to select the region where you want your virtual machine to be located.
A region refers to a specific geographical location with data centers that host infrastructure and services. Each region operates independently and is designed to be self-contained, with its own set of resources and infrastructure. Your choice of a region will largely depend on factors like; the location of your users and organization, data residency, compliance requirements and service capabilities.
c. Click on the drop-down arrows to select “Availability options” and “Availability Zone”.
Azure region usually consists of three availability zones (Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 3) if the availability zone section is enabled. Each zone has one or more data centers that are kilometers apart from each other.
Data centers are equipped with their own power, networking, and cooling systems to minimize the impact of failures and disruptions. These data centers are linked or connected by Fibre-Optic Cables and this technology ensures reliable and fast data transfer over long distances while maintaining low latency and high bandwidth capabilities.
\Users can choose more than one zone if they so wish.*
NB: You will notice that, as you add more zones to your availability zone the virtual machine name automatically gets modified and they will be numbered as shown below.
Security
d. Select your security type from the drop-down menu. For this demo, we will use the preset or default security, “Trusted launch Virtual Machines”.
Image
An image can be referred to as an Operating system. It is a template for creating virtual machines or computer systems, and contains data and configurations such as bootloader, root file system and operating system needed to set up a computer.
e. At the image section, click on the drop down menu or “see all images” and select Windows 10 Pro server.
Sizes
f. Click on “See all sizes” or click on the drop down menu to select the size of your virtual machine. We will leave this in its default setting as highlighted below.
Administrator Account
This involves using a username and setting up a password to access or connect your virtual machine to the host operating system.
Type in your username in the box
Create your password
Confirm your password
Inbound port rules
a. “Allow selected ports” for the Public inbound ports is a default setting, if it is not same for you, select it.
b. RDP (3389) is also set as a default for the inbound port. This will give you remote access to your physical computer(s).
c. Tick the box to confirm the license eligibility
d. Click "Next: Disk>" to direct you to the next page which has information about the disks.
Disks
a. On this page, click on the dropdown menu for the OS disk type and select Premium SSD or any other disk type of your choice as shown below. Leave the other columns as default.
b. Click on “Next: Networking>” for the next page; but leave the networking and subsequent (management, monitoring and advanced) pages as default and skip to the Tag page.
Tag, Review and Create
a. Give a name to your tag
Just like the generic meaning, “Tags” are used to label, identify and organize resources. The purpose of a virtual machine tag is to provide metadata or additional information that helps in managing, organizing, and tracking resources within a cloud infrastructure.
b. Click on “Review + create” (either of the two, highlighted below).
c. You will notice a green tick by the top left hand side of the page that says “Validation passed”. if an error message appeared instead, go back to the highlighted page(s) to make the necessary corrections and click on “Review + create” again.
d. Review the summary of your virtual machine configurations.
e. Click on the "Create" button to begin the deployment process.
Deployment complete
Once the deployment process has been completed, click on “Go to resource” at the bottom of the page.
CONNECT TO YOUR WINDOWS 10 PRO VIRTUAL MACHINE
Create a remote desktop connection to the virtual machine by following these steps:
a) On the Overview page of your virtual machine, click on the connect drop down menu and then click on "Connect" (either of the two highlighted).
RDP DOWNLOAD
b) Click “Select“ on the Native RDP which is suggested to be the most common.
A box will pop-up on the right side of your screen, showing the configuration prerequisites in order to connect to the virtual machine.
c. With all the prerequisites checked, click on “Download RDP file”
d. Open the downloaded RDF file via downloads on file explorer.
e. Click “Connect” on the notification box that appears
f. Type in your username if not pre-filled and your password (administrator) and click “Ok”.
REMOTE DESKTOP CONNEECTION
g. Click “Yes” on the notification box that pops up
Welcome!
Your WINDOWS 10 PRO has been connected to your computer system. You will notice your public IP address at the top of the page.
To get a similar picture below, click on your maximise button at the top right corner of your page.
To disconnect or shut-down the remote connection (Windows 10 Pro)
i. Click on the Windows icon at the bottom left corner of the screen and follow the prompts just like you would normally shut down your physical computer system.
STOP OR START YOUR VIRTUAL MACHINE
You may choose to stop your virtual machine from running. Go back to the Overview section of your virtual machine on the Azure portal and click on “Stop” at the top middle of the page.
Click on “Start” to start it running again.
Stopping your virtual machine will prevent you from incurring costs when you are not using you virtual machine.
DISSOCIATE YOUR VIRTUAL MACHINE
Sometimes, in order to save cost while running your virtual machine, you can dissociate your IP address from your virtual machine.
a. On the “Overview” page of your virtual machine, click on the public IP address which is towards the right side of the page as highlighted below.
b. Click on “Dissociate” on the top left of the page
c. Click on “Yes” on the notification box that pops up in the middle of the page.
When this is done, the process has been completed and you will get a notification regarding it.
ASSOCIATE YOUR VIRTUAL MACHINE
To associate your public IP address to your virtual machine, just reverse the steps
a. Click on “Associate”
A box will pop-up on the right side of the screen to associate public IP address
b. Click on the drop down arrow on the Resource type column and choose “Network interface”.
c. Click on the drop down arrow for Network interface and choose the Resource group that can be associated with the network interface.
d. Click on “Ok” button at the bottom of the box.
DELETE YOUR VIRTUAL MACHINE
To delete your the virtual machine instead, if it is no longer needed. Just like the virtual machine created for this demonstration, kindly follow the steps below;
a. On the “Overview” page of your virtual machine, click on “Delete” at the top, towards the right as highlighted below.
On the right side of your screen, you will see a box that shows the resource to be deleted and the resource type, including the associated resource type.
b. Click on “Apply force delete” to ensure that all of its associated resources are being deleted with it.
c. Check all the boxes for the associated resources to be deleted with the virtual machine.
d. Check the box at the bottom of the page to say that you understand that the VM and all its associated resources will be deleted.
e. Click on delete
NB: For every step you complete on Azure, you get a notification from the notification centre as regards to it.
Hope this helps.