Using Windows on KVM plans

Using Windows on our KVM plans is fairly easy but there are a few things to keep in mind.

  • All VPSes are self-managed unless stated otherwise, enabling RDP, installing various software is the responsibility of the user.
  • If you're using a custom ISO (or user provided ISO) for your install and have software, OS, OS stability related issues, you'll have to sort them out on your own.
  • If your VPS,
  • Remember to activate Windows after install!

FIRST TIME USE!

  • Please read the instructions from the welcome email carefully.
  • You will need to use the web-browser or desktop based VNC console available in CrownPanel (https://crownpanel.com) to set up your server password for the user for login upon install or reinstall
  • If you do not activate your windows licence, the server will automaticly shut down itself

Adding additional IPv4 to Windows

Using ISO based install for Windows

  • Select the ISO from the CD-ROM List and click Mount
  • Change boot order to CD-ROM only
  • Change disk driver to IDE
  • Power Off the VPS
  • Boot the VPS
  • Click on VNC (HTML5 VNC or Java VNC) « Do this as soon as the VPS is online
  • You'll see a black screen saying “Press any key to boot into CD-ROM…” here, click Enter to boot into ISO on prompt
  • The install will start, you can continue the install as normal from here.

RDP

You will need to use the HTML5 VNC function from https://crownpanel.com to access your VPS the first time to set the password (as described above) and to setup/enable RDP, after this you can use RDP as normal.

  • RDP is disabled by default in Windows installs, you'll need to enable it up on your own.
  • Username/Password for RDP is the password you set during the Windows Install.
  • Default user is always Administrator and password is the one you set at first install/login.

VirtIO Drivers

If your VPS has over 10 GB of disk space, one click install is available as well, http://wiki.crowncloud.net/index.php?reinstalling_your_kvm_vm_on_crownpanel

To install your VPS with VirtIO instead of default IDE using ISO/CD-ROM method for better performance, follow this guide, Installing via CD-ROM on CrownPanel http://wiki.crowncloud.net/?enabling_virtio_on_windows_2008_CROWNPANEL

The steps are more or less the same for Windows 2008 and 2012 with the exception of the drivers needed, drivers for windows 2008 and 2012 can be found under the winstor folder of the VirtIO Drivers disk.

  • VirtIO drivers for Windows 2008 can be found under “Windows VirtIO Driver v0.1.30”, under WindowsVista/Windows7 /win7 folder in the Driver CD-ROM or so

  • Similarly, VirtIO drivers for Windows 2012 can be found under “virtIO win v0.1.81”, under Windows8/win8 folder in the Driver CD-ROM or so.

Guides on how to enable RDP

Resetting forgotten password

To reset a forgotten password please see the following guide, Resetting Password On Windows

RDP not working

If your RDP doesn't work even after enabling it, you may also need to enable it in the Windows firewall as seen below,

First, Click on Start button

Then, Click on the search icon beside the Administrator

Now, Enter "Firewall with advanced secuity" inside the search box

Click on Inbound rules

Enable RDP

Done!