Installing Windows Server on a VPS from an ISO

To install Windows Server on a VPS from an ISO, you attach the ISO image to your server as a virtual DVD, run the setup wizard from the browser-based VNC console, load the VirtIO drivers if needed, and then enter your own license. A Windows license isn't included in the server price. Microsoft's official minimum is 2 GB of RAM (Desktop Experience) and 32 GB of disk. The 32 GB is an absolute minimum for Server Core, and Desktop Experience needs about 4 GB more. You will want more for comfortable use.

The easiest way: at Seturack, choose Windows Server 2025, 2022 or 2019 when you order. The server installs itself, the Remote Desktop address and administrator password appear in your panel, and disk and network drivers arrive installed. The steps in this article are for installing your own ISO.

Resource requirements

These are the minimums from Microsoft's hardware requirements page. The last column is our own rule of thumb. It isn't official and varies with the workload.

Seturack's smallest size, 1 GB of RAM with 25 GB of disk, is below these minimums. 2 GB of RAM with 40 GB of disk meets them but is tight once updates arrive. As a rule of thumb, 4 GB of RAM, 2 vCores and 60 GB of disk is a comfortable starting point, but it varies with the workload. At Seturack this size costs about $7 a month, VAT included. If it isn't enough, you scale the server up from the panel, and the disk grows with it.

The license

You supply the Windows license yourself. If the ISO is a retail or volume-license edition, activate it after installation from Settings or from a command prompt opened as administrator:

slmgr.vbs /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX

slmgr.vbs /ato

Check the status with slmgr.vbs /dli. An evaluation ISO is different: per Microsoft's documentation, you convert the edition first, and slmgr alone won't do. A name containing Eval in the output of DISM /online /Get-CurrentEdition means you have an evaluation edition, and DISM /online /Get-TargetEditions lists what you can convert to. Then run this with a name from that list:

DISM /online /Set-Edition:ServerStandard /ProductKey:XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX /AcceptEula

The licensing terms, meaning which license is valid on a virtual server, depend on Microsoft and on the reseller you bought the license from. Confirm them before you buy.

Installation step by step

1. Open your server in the panel and attach the Windows Server image from the ISO Images tool. The images you can attach appear in the panel's ISO list. If the VirtIO driver image (virtio-win) is in the list, attach it too. If a drive slot is free, the panel can attach a second image too. You may be asked to restart the server from the panel before the drive shows up.
2. If the server still boots from its disk and the panel has a Boot Order tool, move the DVD drive ahead of the disk, then restart the server from the panel. Restarting from inside the server doesn't apply the change.
3. Open the VNC Console. If you see "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD", press a key at once. Windows Setup appears. Choose the language and edition, and pick Custom as the installation type.
4. If the disk list is empty, click Load driver and point to the disk driver on the VirtIO image. In Proxmox's Windows Server 2022 guide, the path for a SCSI disk is vioscsi\2k22\amd64. The folder name changes with the version (2k25 for Windows Server 2025). The disk then appears. If the VirtIO image isn't in the list, write to support.
5. Finish the installation and set the Administrator password.
6. If there is no network, point Device Manager's unknown Ethernet controller to the NetKVM folder on the VirtIO image.
7. Windows may not pick up a network address on its own, because your IP address is assigned to you. In that case, enter the IP address, subnet mask, gateway and DNS addresses by hand. The panel shows them in the Your network details card of the ISO Images tool and in the Network Config tool.
8. Install the remaining drivers with virtio-win-gt-x64.msi from the root of the VirtIO image, and run guest-agent\qemu-ga-x86_64.msi for the QEMU guest agent. Then restart.

When the installation finishes, unmount the images in the ISO Images tool and, if you changed the boot order, put the disk first again. Then install updates with Windows Update and set the time zone. Updates may restart the server, which drops your RDP connection. Reconnect once the server is back. Under the terms of service, operating system updates and any software you install are your responsibility.

Where people get stuck

What VirtIO is and why you need it

VirtIO is a package of disk, network and memory drivers written for virtual machines. Windows doesn't ship with them. If the virtual disk or network card is a VirtIO type, the setup wizard can't see the disk, and the installed system can't see the network, until the drivers are loaded. The drivers sit on the VirtIO image. Look in vioscsi or viostor for the disk and NetKVM for the network.

Remote Desktop (RDP)

After installation, turn on Remote Desktop from the Local Server screen in Server Manager, or under Settings > System > Remote Desktop. The default port is 3389. Microsoft recommends keeping Network Level Authentication (NLA) on and giving every account a strong, unique password.

An RDP port open to the internet receives password guesses constantly. Open the port only to your own IP address, both in the panel's firewall and in the Windows firewall. Or connect to a VPN first and then use RDP.

You can work out the price of your size on the pricing page.