01Overview & What You’ll Need

This guide walks through the complete manual process of installing Windows Server 2025 on a Linux-based VPS. This is the technically involved approach — using SSH, command-line tools, and disk imaging to replace the Linux OS with Windows Server. If you’re comfortable with a terminal, it’s entirely achievable. If you’d rather not, skip to the bottom for our automated option.

Windows Server 2025 was released on 1 November 2024 and is Microsoft’s most recent server OS, based on Windows 11 24H2. It brings improved NVMe storage performance (up to 90% more IOPS), enhanced security with Credential Guard enabled by default, and better virtualisation support — making it an excellent choice for VPS deployments.

System Requirements

02Get Your VPS

You need a VPS running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS with at least 8 GB RAM and 60 GB disk. Any major provider works — Hetzner and Contabo offer the best value for the specs Windows Server 2025 requires. If you’re new to DigitalOcean, their $200 free credit for new accounts makes it free to test for months.

Once your VPS is provisioned with Ubuntu 24.04, make a note of:

• Your VPS IP address — shown in your provider dashboard
• Root password — set during provisioning
• Your disk device name — usually /dev/sda or /dev/vda depending on the provider

03Prepare the Server

SSH into your Ubuntu VPS as root. If you’re on Windows use PuTTY; on macOS/Linux use Terminal.

Once logged in, update the system and install required tools:

Identify your disk device and note its name — do not use the wrong device or you will wipe the wrong disk:

04Download the Windows Server 2025 ISO

Download the official Windows Server 2025 Evaluation ISO directly from Microsoft’s Evaluation Center — it is completely free for a 180-day evaluation period, no licence key required. The ISO is around 5.5 GB so this step will take several minutes depending on your server’s internet speed.

First, grab your direct download URL from the Microsoft Evaluation Center (register for free), then download directly to your server:

Mount the ISO to access its contents, and copy the VirtIO drivers (required for disk and network access on virtual hardware):

Download the VirtIO drivers ISO — these are essential for Windows to detect the virtual disk and network adapter on most VPS platforms. Without them, Windows will install but won’t have network access.

05Partition the Disk

Before writing the Windows image, you need to set up the partition table. We’ll use GPT partitioning with a small EFI System Partition (ESP), a Windows system reserved partition, and the main Windows partition. Replace /dev/sda with your actual disk device throughout.

Format the EFI partition as FAT32:

06Write the Windows Image

Install the wimtools package to extract the Windows installation files from the WIM image inside the ISO, then apply it directly to the disk partition. This is more reliable than using dd as it correctly handles the Windows partition format.

Apply the Windows image. We target index 2 which is Windows Server 2025 Standard with Desktop Experience (GUI). Use index 1 for Server Core (command-line only):

Copy the boot files from the ISO to the EFI partition and configure the Windows bootloader:

Inject the VirtIO storage driver into the Windows image so the disk is detected at first boot:

07Pre-Configure Static Network Settings

Unlike Linux, Windows on a VPS won’t automatically detect the correct network settings via DHCP in all cases. You can pre-configure a static IP response by creating an unattend.xml answer file that configures the network, disables the firewall for initial access, and sets the Administrator password.

Get your VPS network details from your provider dashboard before creating this file. You’ll need: IP address, subnet mask, gateway IP, and DNS servers.

Create the unattend.xml answer file that Windows reads on first boot to configure itself automatically:

cat > /mnt/windows/Windows/System32/sysprep/unattend.xml << 'EOF'
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
  <settings pass="oobeSystem">
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup"
      processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"
      language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS"
      xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State">
      <OOBE>
        <HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
        <SkipMachineOOBE>true</SkipMachineOOBE>
        <SkipUserOOBE>true</SkipUserOOBE>
      </OOBE>
      <UserAccounts>
        <AdministratorPassword>
          <Value>YourStrongPassword123!</Value>  <!-- CHANGE THIS -->
          <PlainText>true</PlainText>
        </AdministratorPassword>
      </UserAccounts>
    </component>
    <component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core"
      processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"
      language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS">
      <InputLocale>en-GB</InputLocale>
      <SystemLocale>en-GB</SystemLocale>
      <UILanguage>en-GB</UILanguage>
      <UserLocale>en-GB</UserLocale>
    </component>
  </settings>
</unattend>
EOF

08Pre-Enable RDP & Disable Firewall

By default, Windows Server 2025 has RDP disabled and the firewall blocking port 3389. You can pre-configure both by editing the Windows registry from Linux before rebooting. This ensures you can connect immediately after first boot without needing console/VNC access.

Add a RunOnce registry entry to disable the Windows Firewall on first boot, which ensures RDP connectivity before you’ve had a chance to configure firewall rules:

09Unmount, Reboot & First Connection

With the image applied, drivers injected, bootloader configured, and RDP pre-enabled, it’s time to cleanly unmount everything and reboot into Windows.

Windows first boot takes 10–20 minutes as it completes hardware detection, driver installation, and initial setup. Then connect via RDP:

Once connected, run Windows Update immediately to get the latest security patches:

Change the Administrator password to something strong and then re-enable the firewall with RDP allowed:

10Troubleshooting Common Problems

Server won’t boot after reboot

The most common cause is an incorrect bootloader configuration. If your VPS provider supports it, boot into rescue mode, remount the partitions, and check the EFI/boot configuration. Alternatively, verify the disk device name was correct — using /dev/vda on a KVM VPS when you configured /dev/sda will cause boot failure.

RDP connects but black screen

This is normal on first boot. Windows needs up to 5 minutes to complete its initial setup after the first RDP connection. Disconnect and try again after 2–5 minutes. If it persists, check that the TermService (Remote Desktop Services) is running via the VNC/console.

No network after Windows boots

The VirtIO NetKVM driver wasn’t injected correctly, or Windows defaulted to DHCP but the VPS uses a static IP. Connect via VNC/console (most providers offer this), open Device Manager and install the network driver manually from the VirtIO ISO, then configure a static IP from Network Settings.

Activation & Licence

Your Windows Server 2025 Evaluation will run for 180 days before requiring activation. To check remaining evaluation time:

11Frequently Asked Questions