The best way to connect to a virtual machine in Azure if it's a Windows operating system is through a Remote Desktop Connection or RDP.  In this post I am going to show how to set the Azure portal virtual machine to accept RDP connection from your desktop.



Here are the steps to set up RDP:

1. Log into Azure portal portal.azure.com with your Microsoft Azure account
2. Click on the "Virtual Machines" link, and select the virtual machine that you want to connect to via RDP








3. Select "Networking"















4.  On the "Networking" screen there should already be an RDP inbound rule setup for you already else click on the "Add inbound port" button to add an RDP inbound rule


The RDP rule should look like the following, the priority can be different.






































5.  Click on "Overview" to go back to the virtual machine dashboard














6.  In the virtual machine overview screen click on the "Configure" link under "DNS name"















7. In the DNS settings screen

• select the "Static" radio button to grab a static IP
• give the VM a unique DNS name
• click "Save"

8. Go back to the virtual machine overview page and you will see the at the DNS name has been setup.  Click on the "Start" button















9. Wait for the VM is fully started then open RDP on your Windows machine







10. In the "Computer Name" field type in the DNS name, and fill in the user that you want to connect with in the "Username" field.






































11. Type in your credentials when prompted, then click "OK"




















12. Accept the certificate, and you will be logged into your virtual machine

























13.  You virtual machine is connected via your DNS name