Windows On A Server That Only Ships Linux
Contabo, Hetzner, OVH and most of the cheap European hosts hand you Debian or Ubuntu and leave it there. Windows either costs extra every month as a licensed add on or is not offered at all on the plan you bought. Either way the machine can run it, and we install it through rescue mode with your own licence and hand back a working desktop over RDP.
Then the part that matters more than the install. A Windows machine on a public address starts collecting remote desktop login attempts within the hour, from software working through common usernames all day. Left on the default port with a password, it is the single easiest thing to lose on a rented server, so the hardening goes on before you ever log in.
How The Install Actually Happens
Rescue mode is the trick, and it is the reason this works on a plan that never offered Windows. Your host lets you boot the machine into a small temporary Linux system for repairs, and from there the disk can be written to directly, which is how a completely different operating system ends up on it.
We check the plan can carry it
Windows wants noticeably more memory and disk than a Linux install doing the same job, and the smallest VPS tiers will technically run it while being miserable to use. You get told that before the machine is wiped rather than after, and sometimes the honest answer is upgrading the plan first.
Anything you still want comes off first
This wipes the disk completely. If there is a site, a database or files on there that matter, they get copied somewhere safe before we start, and if there is nothing worth keeping you say so and we skip it. Nobody has ever been pleased to discover this step was assumed.
Booted into rescue and written directly
The machine comes up in your host's rescue system and the Windows image is written to the disk from there. Contabo, Hetzner and OVH all provide this, and where a host does not, the alternative is mounting an ISO through their console, which is slower and still works.
Drivers and networking, which is where it usually goes wrong
A stock Windows image often cannot see the virtual disk or the network card a hosting platform presents, so it installs and then sits there unreachable. The right drivers go in during the build, and the addressing is set by hand because these machines rarely hand out network settings automatically.
Your licence activated and updates run
The key you supply goes in and activation is confirmed rather than left showing a watermark in three weeks. Then the pending updates run through, because a fresh image is usually months behind and the first thing an unpatched Windows box does on the internet is get found.
Remote desktop locked down before you log in
The port moved off the obvious one, access limited to addresses you name where that suits you, a proper administrator account with the default renamed, account lockout switched on and the firewall closed to everything else. On a machine that will be exposed all day, this is not optional.
Credentials, and how to get back in
The administrator password, the port, and written notes on reaching the console if you ever lock yourself out. That last one matters, because on a rented machine with no monitor attached there is no walking over to it.
The licence, said plainly
You bring a valid Windows key or we help you work out which edition you need and where to buy it. Server editions and desktop editions are licensed differently, and what you are allowed to run on rented hardware is not always what people assume, so it is worth two minutes at the start.
We do not supply keys and we do not use activation workarounds. Those machines lose activation at the worst moment, and on a server that is running something you care about it is a strange risk to take to save a fairly small amount of money.
How An Urgent One Runs
Server down work goes to the front of the queue, and most of these are resolved the same day. The sequence below is the same whether it is a machine that has been unreachable for an hour or a tunnel that has been broken for a week.
You Send The Error And Get An Opinion
A screenshot of the exact failure, the type of resource involved, when it started and anything that changed around that time. That is usually enough for a first read, and you get told what it looks like and roughly how big a job it is before money is discussed. Vague quotes on emergency work suit neither side.
Read Only Is Enough To Start
Diagnosis needs visibility, not control. A reader role scoped to the affected resource group lets us pull the effective rules, the route tables, the flow logs and the gateway diagnostics without the ability to change a single thing. If what we find needs a change, you widen the access at that point, for that job.
The Smallest Change That Solves It
One rule, one route, one role assignment, applied deliberately. It is always faster to open everything up and watch the traffic flow, and it leaves you with a network that works today and an audit finding later. Where a service is already down the change goes in immediately, and where it is degraded rather than dead we agree a time first.
You Get The Cause, Not Just The Result
What was wrong, what changed, and why it broke in the first place, written plainly enough to forward to whoever asks. Where the cause was a rule somebody added without a note, the fix includes leaving the reason behind so the next person to look at it understands what they are seeing.
What Sits Outside This
Redesigning your architecture is a different piece of work, and we will say so rather than quietly turning a two hour fix into a project. Support cases with Microsoft stay under your own subscription, though we will prepare one properly if the problem genuinely belongs on their side. Ongoing management is an arrangement you can ask for, never an assumption written into a repair.
And where the honest answer is that the environment needs rebuilding rather than patching, that is what you will hear, with the reasoning, on the first call rather than after three invoices.
What People Actually Run On These
Almost always something that will not run on Linux and needs to be awake when the person is asleep. If both of those are true, a Windows VPS is the cheapest answer there is. If only one is, there is usually a simpler option worth hearing about first.
Software that only exists for Windows
Accounting packages, trading terminals, industry tools, an old application a business still depends on. Some of these will run under a compatibility layer on Linux and most of them run badly, so putting them on the platform they were written for is the quiet answer.
Something that has to stay running
A bot, a scraper, a scheduled job, a tool that needs to be watching something at four in the morning. Your laptop closes and goes to sleep. A rented machine does not, and that is usually the entire reason somebody wants one.
A desktop you can reach from anywhere
The same environment from the office, a laptop, a phone or a borrowed computer, with the files and the software staying put. Useful when you move between machines a lot or when work should not live on a device you carry through airports.
Testing on a clean machine
Trying software without putting it near your own computer, checking how a build behaves on a fresh install, or keeping a throwaway environment you can wipe and rebuild in an hour when it goes wrong.
A machine in a particular country
Where a service behaves differently depending on where the connection comes from, running the software on a server there is more reliable than routing a home computer through a tunnel. Same idea, fewer moving parts.
Small business services
A file share, a domain controller for a handful of machines, an internal application, a licence server. Server editions handle these properly, and the rented machine is often cheaper than the box that would otherwise sit in a cupboard.
When we would tell you not to bother
If the software has a Linux version that works, run that instead and keep the licence money. Plenty of people ask for Windows out of habit and end up with a machine that costs more, needs more memory and gives them nothing extra for it.
And if what you actually want is a desktop for a team rather than one machine for yourself, that is a different job with different licensing, and it is worth pricing properly rather than stacking up individual servers. Whichever way it goes, the server ends up on a public address either way, so the hardening side matters as much as the install.
Packages And What They Cost
Paid once for the install, with nothing recurring on our side afterwards. Pick by whether you want the machine handed over ready to use or built out properly for something that has to keep running.
Windows Install
One server, wiped and rebuilt with Windows, reachable over remote desktop and locked down before you log in.
- Plan checked before anything is wiped
- Existing data copied off if you need it kept
- Installed through rescue mode or console ISO
- Storage and network drivers handled
- Addressing set by hand so it comes up reachable
- Your licence activated and confirmed
- Pending updates run before handover
- Remote desktop moved off the default port
Install And Harden
The same build with the security work done properly, for a machine that will sit on a public address running something you care about.
- Everything in Windows Install
- Remote desktop limited to addresses you name
- Default administrator renamed, account lockout on
- Firewall closed to everything else inbound
- Automatic updates configured with a restart window
- Your software installed and set to start on boot
- A backup or snapshot schedule set up and tested
- Written notes covering console access and recovery
Servers And Rescue
Several machines, a Windows Server build with roles on it, or a box somebody else installed that nobody can reach any more.
- Several servers built to match each other
- Windows Server with file sharing or a domain
- Remote desktop for a handful of users
- Failed or half finished installs recovered
- Machines locked out or unreachable after a change
- Migration from one host to another
- Documentation your own people can work from
Added To Any Package
- Each additional server on the same job $20
- Copying data off before the wipe $50
- Your software installed and configured $20
- Recovering a machine you cannot reach $100
- Support after handover, monthly $200 / mo
The Windows licence and the server itself are yours and stay billed to you directly. Worth checking your host's Windows add on price before deciding, because on some plans the licensed option costs little enough that installing your own key is not worth the effort, and we will say so if that is your situation.
Tell Us The Host, The Plan And What It Has To Run
Contabo, Hetzner, OVH or somebody else, roughly what the plan gives you in memory and disk, and the software that needs to sit on it. That is enough for a price and an honest answer on whether the machine will actually be pleasant to use. If you are already locked out of a Windows box somebody else installed, say so and it goes to the front of the queue.
Talk about your server