Cloud availability of short-term "virgin" Windows instances?

Posted by Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
Published on 2011-01-28T09:31:39Z Indexed on 2011/01/28 23:36 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 354

Filed under:

Windows

|

Cloud

I have a situation where we on a regular basis need a freshly installed "virgin" Windows installation to do various work in isolation on, and building one from scratch every time in a vmware instance is getting tedious.

Perhaps there are cloud offerings providing a service allowing to request one or more Windows instances and after a very short while they were available for logging in through Remote Desktop? After usage they were just recycled without having to pay for a full Windows license every time.

Do this exist for a reasonable price? What is your personal experiences with this?

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about Windows

Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Handling keyboard and mouse input (Win API)

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
There is a number of ways to catch mouse or keyboard under Windows. So I tried some of them, but every of them has some advantages and drawbacks. I want to ask you: Which method do use? I've tried these: WM_KEYDOWN/WM_KEYUP - Main disadvantage is that, I can't distinguish between left and right-handed… >>> More

Related posts about Cloud

Understanding: cloud-server, cloud-hosting, cloud-computing, the cloud

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
There's a lot of buzz about these subjects and there seems little consensus on the terms. Is that just me not understanding the subject, or is there a clear meaning for each of these terms? Are there more elaborate terms or descriptions that describe what a cloud provider has, is or offers? EDIT:… >>> More
amazon cloud vs rackspace cloud

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hi, I'm looking to take a dedicated server - in the process I read about Amazon Cloud computing & Rackspace Cloud Servers. Now I'm not sure which one to opt? Could somebody suggest - Performance & Price wise. Regards >>> More
BULL nous parle de Cloud Maker, offre de cloud computing s'appuyant sur l'hyperviseur de Microsoft

as seen on Developper.com - Search for 'Developper.com'
BULL nous parle de Cloud Maker, offre de cloud computing s'appuyant sur l'hyperviseur de Microsoft Lors des Tech Days 2010, organisés par Microsoft, Bull avait annoncé la signature d'un accord de coopération stratégique dans le domaine de l'interopérabilité avec la firme de Redmond. De ce fait… >>> More
Big Data – Role of Cloud Computing in Big Data – Day 11 of 21

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
In yesterday’s blog post we learned the importance of the NewSQL. In this article we will understand the role of Cloud in Big Data Story What is Cloud? Cloud is the biggest buzzword around from last few years. Everyone knows about the Cloud and it is extremely well defined online. In this article… >>> More
amazon cloud vs rackspace cloud [closed]

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I'm looking to take a dedicated server - in the process I read about Amazon Cloud computing & Rackspace Cloud Servers. Now I'm not sure which one to opt? Could somebody suggest - Performance & Price wise. Regards >>> More