Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Windows 11 VM in Azure
Imagine yourself, not really having to invest so much in your physical computer or hardware, you know, something you don’t have to carry around, but can still access anywhere, anytime and you still have full control over the operating system and the software? Absolutely!!! That’s a Virtual Machine, very flexible (think of it as renting a computer).
An Azure Virtual Machine (VM) is a computing resource in Microsoft Azure that let’s you run applications and workloads, just like you would on a physical computer, but in the cloud.
It’s essentially an emulation of a physical computer that runs on Azure’s infrastructure. You can install an operating system (Windows/Linux), applications, configure it just like a normal server.
Today, I’ll be showing you, step by step how to create a windows 11 virtual machine on Azure. Okay, Let’s dive into it!!!
Step 1 : Log in to your Azure portal
Go to https://portal.azure.com
Sign in with your Azure account
You’ll land on your Azure homepage
Step 2: Search for virtual machines
In the search bar, type “virtual machines“.
Click on virtual machines.
- After clicking, you would land on the virtual machines page
Step 3: Click “create“ - “Virtual Machine“
Click Create (top left).
Choose Virtual Machine.
- when you choose Virtual machine, you’ll land on the “Create Virtual machine“ page.
Step 4: Configure the basics settings
You’ll then see a Basics tab with these fields:
- Choose your Subscription
- Resource Group - Create a new one or choose an existing one (e.g., myResourceGroup)
- Virtual Machine Name - E.g., (myVM01) and choose the region nearest to you
- Availability Options - Decide if you want redundancy
- Security type - Decide if you want standard
- Image - Choose OS (windows server, Ubuntu, etc.)
- Size - Pick VM size (e.g., B2s, vCPU, 4 GB RAM)
- Type in your username and password
- Select inbound ports and click the licensing box
Step 5: Configure Disks
OS Disk type - (Standard HDD, Standard SSD, Premium SSD) and Size
Optionally add data disks
(most of the options in this section have been chosen automatically)
Step 6: Networking (most options have been chosen automatically)
Virtual Network (VNet) - Create new or use existing.
Subnet - Select default or create one.
Public IP - Assign one if you need internet access.
Network Security Group (NSG) - configure inbound rule (e.g., allow RDP for Windows, SSH for Linux).
Step 7: Management , Monitoring and Advanced (optional)
Enable boot diagnostics (saves logs).
Enable Auto-shutdown if needed.
Add tags for cost tracking
Step 8: Review + Create
Azure will validate your configuration.
If everything looks good - Click Create
Step 9: Deployment
Deployment will take 2-5 minutes.
You should get a notification that your deployment is initializing and submitting.
Once complete, you’ll see “Your deployment is complete“.
Click Go to resource group
Step 10: Connect to your VM
For windows VM - use RDP with public IP + credentials.
For Linux VM - use SSH from terminal.
After you click on go to resource, now click on the virtual machine you just created.
- Then, click connect
- Download the RDP file
- Open the file and connect
Now you type in your password (for your administrator account above)
Then click yes and wait for it to load…
Now you have a fully running Azure virtual machine!!!
You now know how to create a windows 11 VM through the steps that have given above. when next you turn on your computer and login to your Azure account, create a VM following these steps and really it a piece of cake (easy peasy).
Stay tuned for the next post!!!
