Use a Non-SYSPREP VHD in Azure

Q: I uploaded a VHD to Azure that isn't SYSPREP'd. Is there anything I need to do?

A: When you SYSPREP a virtual machine and upload to Azure, when Azure then deploys a virtual machine based on the template, the provisioning engine performs actions such as tweaking the RDP configuration, setting the KMS server, moving the pagefile to the temporary drive, and so on. If you just take a virtual machine and upload to Azure that isn't SYSPREP'd, then the Azure provisioning engine can't make these changes for you, which means you need to manually perform them. Remember that before you upload the virtual machine to Azure you must make sure RDP is enabled; the virtual machine will get a new NIC when uploaded to Azure and will therefore use DHCP automatically to enable you to connect to it. Then you need to perform the following actions: