Install Windows on Digital Ocean droplet

README.md

TL;DR

• Guide from https://glitchwitch.io/blog/2018-09/windows-10-on-digitalocean/
• Download Windows ISO from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

Steps

• Create a build droplet with 4GB RAM
• Install QEMU and run the Windows 10 installation ISO

$ apt-get update && apt-get install qemu -y
$ qemu-img create -f raw windows10.img 16G
$ wget https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/stable-virtio/virtio-win.iso
$ qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -m 3G \
  -cpu host \
  -enable-kvm \
  -boot order=d \
  -drive file=Win10.iso,media=cdrom \
  -drive file=windows10.img,format=raw,if=virtio \
  -drive file=virtio-win.iso,media=cdrom \
  -vnc :0

• Connect via VNC and install Windows 10
• Install the following drivers from the virtio-win ISO
  • f:\NetKvm\w10\amd64
  • f:\viostor\w10\amd64
• Continue the Windows 10 installation
• Power off the QEMU vm at the point the Windows 10 installation requires a reboot
• On build droplet host the created disk image via a HTTP server

$ python3 -m http.server

• Create a target droplet with 4GB - 8GB RAM
• Boot the target droplet into recovery mode by setting Recovery mode to Boot from Recovery ISO
• SSH into the target droplet
• Download the Windows 10 QEMU disk image from the build instance and write it to the droplet disk

$ wget -O- http://82.196.0.147:8000/windows10.img | dd of=/dev/vda
$ shutodwn 0

• Change the target droplet Recovery mode back to Boot from Hard Drive
• Boot Windows and attach via the web console
• In a CMD prompt configure IP, RDP and Firewall settings:

$ netsh interface ip set address "connection name" static <IP Address> <Net Mask> <Default Gateway>
$ reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
$ netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="remote desktop" new enable=Yes

• Connect via RDP