This document describes how to enable or disable virtual displays on a virtualmachine (VM) instance.

If an application running on your VM requires a display device, but you don'tneed the performance of a GPU, then configure your VM to use virtual displaydevices. By enabling virtual displays on a VM, you can run virtual displaydevices on the VM, such as remote system management tools, remote desktopsoftware, andscreen capturing.

Before you begin

• If you haven't already, set upauthentication. Authentication verifies your identity for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:

  Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:

  Console

  When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

  gcloud

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation,initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:

     gcloudinit

     If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

     Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by runninggcloud components update.
  2. Set a default region and zone.

  Terraform

  To use the Terraform samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by runninggcloud components update.

  If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account:

  gcloudauthapplication-defaultlogin

  You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

  If an authentication error is returned, and you are using an external identity provider (IdP), confirm that you have signed in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

  REST

  To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.

  Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

  Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by runninggcloud components update.

  For more information, seeAuthenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Required roles

To get the permissions that you need to enable or disable virtual displays on a VM, ask your administrator to grant you theCompute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1) IAM role on the project. For more information about granting roles, seeManage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

This predefined role contains the permissions required to enable or disable virtual displays on a VM. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand theRequired permissions section:

You might also be able to get these permissions withcustom roles or otherpredefined roles.

Pricing

There are no costs associated with enabling or disabling virtual displays on aVM.

Restrictions

For VMs with virtual displays enabled, the following limitations apply:

• If your VM is running an x64-based Windows OS image earlier than versionv20190312, then, after enabling virtual displays on your VM, you mustinstall the virtual display driver as described in thisdocument. If your VM is running a later OS image version, then the driver isalready installed on the OS image.

• You can use a virtual display device on the VM only after the guest OS bootsand initializes the virtual display driver.

• You can't use virtual display devices on VMs that run theSandy Bridge CPU platform.

• You can't use virtual display devices onT2A Arm VMs.

Enable virtual displays on a VM

To enable virtual displays on a VM, select one of the following methodsdescribed in this document:

• Create a VM with virtual displays enabled.

• Enable virtual displays on an existing VM.

If your VM is running an x64-based Windows OS image earlier than versionv20190312, then, after you enable virtual displays on the VM,install the virtual display driver as described in thisdocument.

Create a VM with virtual displays enabled

To create a VM with virtual displays enabled, select one of the followingoptions:

gcloud compute instances createVM_NAME \    --enable-display-device \    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE \    --zone=ZONE

resource "google_compute_instance" "instance_virtual_display" {  name         = "instance-virtual-display"  machine_type = "f1-micro"  zone         = "us-central1-c"  # Set the below to true to enable virtual display  enable_display = true  boot_disk {    initialize_params {      image = "debian-cloud/debian-11"    }  }  network_interface {    # A default network is created for all GCP projects    network = "default"    access_config {    }  }}

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances{  "name": "VM_NAME",  "machineType": "zones/ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE",  "disks": [    {      "boot": true,      "initializeParams": {        "sourceImage": "project/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE"      }    }  ],  "displayDevice": {    "enableDisplay": true  },  "networkInterfaces": [    {      "network": "global/networks/default"    }  ]}

For more information about creating a VM, seeCreate and start a Compute Engine instance.

Enable virtual displays on an existing VM

Before enabling virtual displays on a VM, make sure tostop the VM.

To enable virtual displays on an existing VM, select one of the followingoptions:

gcloud compute instances updateVM_NAME \    --enable-display-device \    --zone=ZONE

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances/VM_NAME/updateDisplayDevice{  "enableDisplay": true}

Disable virtual displays on an existing VM

Before disabling virtual displays on a VM, make sure tostop the VM.

To disable virtual displays on an existing VM, select one of the followingoptions:

gcloud compute instances updateVM_NAME \    --no-enable-display-device \    --zone=ZONE

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances/VM_NAME/updateDisplayDevice{  "enableDisplay": false}

Install the virtual display driver

If you've enabled virtual displays on a Windows VM that runs a Windows OS imageearlier than versionv20190312, then, to use a virtual display device on theVM, you must install the virtual display driver provided by Google Cloud. If theVM runs a more recent OS image version, then the driver is already installed andyou can skip this section.

To install the virtual display driver on a VM with virtual displays enabled, dothe following:

1. Connect to the Windows VM.

2. Open a PowerShell terminal as an administrator.

3. Install thegoogle-compute-engine-driver-gga component:

   googet install google-compute-engine-driver-gga

4. Restart the VM.

After you restart the VM, you canverify that the driver was correctly installed asdescribed in the next section.

Verify the virtual display driver installation

If you had to manuallyinstall the virtual display driver ona Windows VM as described in the previous section, then you can verify that theinstallation was successful by doing the following:

1. If you haven't already,connect to the Windows VM.

2. Open Device Manager.

3. In theDevice Manager list, in theDisplay adapters list, make surethat the Google Graphics Array (GGA) driver is listed.

   If the driver isn't listed, thenreinstall the virtual display driver as described in thisdocument.

What's next

• Learn how toset up Chrome Remote Desktop on Linux VMs.

• Learn how toconnect to Windows VMs using RDP.