Install Windows Server on any VPS or Dedicated Server without KVMiLO or IPMI

22.07.2025 #selfhosted

After many days of testing and learning, I managed to install Windows Server on my OVH VPS without KVM/iLO or IPMI and just 4GB of RAM, so here is my tutorial (theoretically it should work for all suppliers who provides a LINUX/UBUNTU RESCUE IMAGE)

NOTE: I couldn’t find a tutorial on the whole internet that could manage to install windows like this, so I think it’s the first one.

(I make customs ISO´s and.gz of Windows Server 2025 | 2022 | 2019 | 2016 | 2012R2 Standard with GUI + VirtIO & Intel Drivers. If you want install another version of Windows you can make your own)

Thanks to BonGuides for " How to Add Drivers into a Windows ISO Installation Image "

TESTED IN OVH VPS (Success ✓) HETZNER VPS (Success ✓) AND ONEPROVIDER (Success?)

DISCLAIMER: The installation of the operating system is successful, the problem is at the time of login.

(This configuration from OneProvider has static IP, I tried with a script for the configuration but it does not work, so I suspect it is a blocking on the port “3389” by OneProvider.)

OVH VPS “VLE-4” ~ 11USD/Mo
4 vCore | 4 GB | 80 GB SSD NVMe | 1 Gbps

ONEPROVIDER ~ 10USD/Mo
Atom C2350 1.7 GHz 2c/2t | 4 GB DDR3 | 1× 250 GB (SSD SATA) | 1 Gbps

HETZNER ~ €3.29/Mo (NO VIRTUALIZATION CPU)
2 vCore | 4 GB | 40 GB SSD NVMe | 1 Gbps @ 20TB

HETZNER ~ €6.30/Mo (NO VIRTUALIZATION CPU)
4 vCore | 8 GB | 80 GB SSD NVMe | 1 Gbps @ 20TB

Let’s begin the journey!

Perform a clean installation of Ubuntu on your VPS/Dedicated Server

Reboot in “Rescue Mode” and log in with your user and password

sudo -i

In my 2017 tutorial " Install Windows on Dedibox XC SSD 2016 with QEMU " I used the RAM as a disk, but in this case we only have 4GB of RAM so we need more space to locate our ISO, then we will use the machine disk.

sda or sdb? in my case was /dev/sda

lsblk

cgdisk /dev/sda

DELETE (ALL PARTITIONS) ➤ WRITE ➤ QUITE

Type "reboot" (wait 5 minutes and connect again)

fdisk /dev/sda

type "M" enter protective/hybrid MBR

type "t" change a partition type

Hex code (type L to list all codes): type "7"

"Changed type of partition 'GPT' to 'HPFS/NTFS/exFAT'."

type "w" to save

type "q" to exit

lsblk

sda      8:0    0 238,5G  0 disk

└─sda1   8:1    0 238,5G  0 part

fdisk /dev/sda

type "d" to delete

type "n" to create a new one

type "p" - Primary Partition (firs sector - default)

type "+25G" to create a 25GB partition

- We already have our first partition, now we need a second one where we will download our files

type "n" to create a new one
default-default-default-default

sda      8:0    0 238,5G  0 disk

├─sda1   8:1    0    25G  0 part

└─sda2   8:2    0 213,5G  0 part

type "w" to save the changes

Now we have our second partition ready, you need to format it and mount it. (Only the second one /dev/sda2)

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

lsblk

sda      8:0    0 238,5G  0 disk

├─sda1   8:1    0    25G  0 part

└─sda2   8:2    0 213,5G  0 part /mnt

Download the Windows ISO and VirtIO ISO to /mnt (wiki - PROXMOX)

I make customs ISO´s of Windows Server 2025 | 2022 | 2019 | 2016 | 2012R2 Standard with GUI + VirtIO & Intel Drivers

BACKUP:GOOGLE DRIVE

Windows Server 2012R2

wget -P /mnt https://eu1.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2012R2_x64_VirtIO_Intel.iso
wget -P /mnt https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso

Windows Server 2016
wget -P /mnt https://eu1.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2016_x64_VirtIO_Intel.iso
wget -P /mnt https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso

Windows Server 2019
wget -P /mnt https://eu1.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2019_x64_VirtIO_Intel.iso
wget -P /mnt https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso

Windows Server 2022
wget -P /mnt https://eu1.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2022_x64_VirtIO_Intel.iso
wget -P /mnt https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso

Windows Server 2025
wget -P /mnt https://eu1.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2025_x64_VirtIO_Intel.iso
wget -P /mnt https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso

Install QEMU-SYSTEM

apt-get install qemu-system -y

Launch QEMU (paste the code and tap 2 times to start)
You need to have VNC Viewer installed on your PC to control QEMU environment

VPS with Virtual Drive (OVH VPS):

qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -m 1G \
  -cpu host \
  -enable-kvm \
  -boot order=d \
  -drive file=/mnt/WINDOWSISONAME.iso,media=cdrom \
  -drive file=/mnt/virtio-win.iso,media=cdrom \
  -drive file=/dev/sda,format=raw,if=virtio \
  -device usb-ehci,id=usb,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4 \
  -device usb-tablet \
  -net nic,model=virtio-net-pci \
  -net user,hostfwd=tcp::3389-:3389 \
  -vnc :0 \

Dedicated Servers with Physical Drive (OneProvider):

qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -m 1G \
  -cpu host \
  -boot order=d \
  -drive file=/mnt/WINDOWSISONAME.iso,media=cdrom \
  -drive file=/dev/sda,format=raw \
  -device usb-ehci,id=usb,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4 \
  -device usb-tablet \
  -net nic,model=virtio-net-pci \
  -net user,hostfwd=tcp::3389-:3389 \
  -vnc :0 \

Write the IP of your server and use “0” as port in VNC Viewer

For VPS with virtual drivers you need “Load driver” from mounted virtio-win.iso ➤ go to amd64/yourwinversion

Once you are in Windows, open “SERVER MANAGER” and enable “Remote desktop”

Now go to your provider’s panel and reset the server to “normal mode” and connect via remote desktop.

INSTALL WINDOWS ON HETZNER VPS (NO VIRTUALIZATION CPU)

I tried to install windows with the other method, but HETNZER does not have virtualization enabled, so it is impossible.
For this I created custom Windows.gz with VirtIO & Intel Drivers (like in the old days) and it worked!

Install Ubuntu and boot in normal or rescue mode its the same in this case, Open Putty ➤ Log in with root credentials ➤ paste this code to install Windows ➤ Lets the magic happens

I make customs.gz of Windows Server 2025 | 2022 | 2019 | 2016 | 2012R2 Standard with GUI + VirtIO & Intel Drivers

BACKUP:GOOGLE DRIVE

Windows Server 2012R2

wget -O- 'https://eu2.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2012R2_VirtIO_Intel.gz' | gunzip | dd of=/dev/sda

Windows Server 2016

wget -O- 'https://eu2.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2016_VirtIO_Intel.gz' | gunzip | dd of=/dev/sda

Windows Server 2019

wget -O- 'https://eu2.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2019_VirtIO_Intel.gz' | gunzip | dd of=/dev/sda

Windows Server 2022

wget -O- 'https://eu2.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2022_VirtIO_Intel.gz' | gunzip | dd of=/dev/sda

Windows Server 2025

wget -O- 'https://eu2.vpssh.xyz/Windows_Server_2025_VirtIO_Intel.gz' | gunzip | dd of=/dev/sda

Wait about 15-30 minutes to finish the process, putty should look like this:

“Power Off” ➤ “Power On” ➤ Connect via remote desktop with these credentials

USER: Administrator PASSWORD: MyRLSE2024

SPECIAL THANKS TO

BonGuides for " How to Add Drivers into a Windows ISO Installation Image "
BonGuides for " How to Remove Editions from a Windows 10 ISO Image "
Rean’s Web for " Custom Windows Server Image on Digital Ocean "
David Dalton for " Creating and formatting partitions in Ubuntu Server "

JOIN MY TELEGRAM GROUP!
Windows without KVM/iLO or IPMI
https://t.me/+-nZfmEQSlfJkM2Q5

Джерело: Install Windows Server on any VPS or Dedicated Server without KVM/iLO or IPMI — LowEndTalk