There are times in development where a Windows development machine is needed.
This is a guide for how to get a Windows development virtual machine on Google Cloud Platform
(GCP) with the same preinstalled tools as the GitLab shared Windows runners.
## Why Windows in Google Cloud?
Use of Microsoft Windows operating systems on company laptops is banned under GitLab's [Approved Operating Systems policy](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/security/approved_os.html#windows).
This can make it difficult to develop features for the Windows platforms. Using GCP will allow us to have a temporary Windows machine that can be removed once we're done with it.
## Shared Windows runners
You can use the shared Windows runners in the case that you don't need a full Windows development machine.
The [GitLab 12.7 Release Post](https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2020/01/22/gitlab-12-7-released/#windows-shared-runners-on-gitlabcom-beta)
and [Windows shared runner beta blog post](https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2020/01/21/windows-shared-runner-beta/#getting-started) both
outline quite a bit of useful information.
To use the shared Windows runners add the following `tags` to relevant jobs in your `.gitlab-ci.yml` file:
```yaml
tags:
- shared-windows
- windows
- windows-1809
```
A list of software preinstalled on the Windows images is available at: [Preinstalled software](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/shared-runners/images/gcp/windows-containers/blob/master/cookbooks/preinstalled-software/README.md).
1. Build the image by running the command: `packer build packer.json`.
## How to use a Windows image in GCP
1. In a web browser, go to <https://console.cloud.google.com/compute/images>.
1. Filter images by the name you used when creating image, `windows` is likely all you need to filter by.
1. Click the image's name.
1. Click the **CREATE INSTANCE** link.
1. Important: Change name to what you'd like as you can't change it later.
1. Optional: Change Region to be closest to you as well as any other option you'd like.
1. Click **Create** at the bottom of the page.
1. Click the name of your newly created VM Instance (optionally you can filter to find it).
1. Click **Set Windows password**.
1. Optional: Set a username or use default.
1. Click **Next**.
1. Copy and save the password as it won't be shown again.
1. Click **RDP** down arrow.
1. Click **Download the RDP file**.
1. Open the downloaded RDP file with the Windows remote desktop app (<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/remote/remote-desktop-services/clients/remote-desktop-clients>).
1. Click **Continue** to accept the certificate.
1. Enter the password and click **Next**.
You should now be remoted into a Windows machine with a command prompt.
### Optional: Use GCP VM Instance as a runner
- Register the runner with a project: `gitlab-runner.exe register`.
- Install the runner:`gitlab-runner.exe install`.
- Start the runner: `gitlab-runner.exe start`.
For more information, see [Install GitLab Runner on Windows](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/windows.html)
