HostVenom offers a Trading VPS package purpose built for low latency, giving you your desired environment for online trading. If you’re new to interacting with a Windows Server VPS, or just need a few pointers on getting one set up, we’ve provided a getting started guide below!
Windows Servers, and Windows Server VPSs in this case, are interacted with remotely using Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol, or RDP. This allows you to use a program, like the Windows Remote Desktop Connection application, to view your Windows Server from your PC as if it were a standard Windows 10 desktop.
We have an article on connecting to your server using RDP, Accessing your server via Remote Desktop (Windows OS).
One of the first things you’ll probably want to do after connecting to your VPS is open your browser to install the software that you need. Just like on your home Windows PC, you can find the browser in the start menu.
Windows includes Edge as it’s default browser and it can be located by searching “Edge” in the start menu or by looking under the letter “M” in the program list in the start menu.
The Windows Start menu after a fresh Windows Server install. Microsoft Edge is the second program entry on the left side under the header “M”
After finding and opening Microsoft Edge you may want to install a different browser. For this example we’ll be using Google Chrome, but the steps will be the same for most any browser, just substitute the initial search for the browser of your choice,
You’ll want to start by typing the name of the browser into the omni-bar at the top of the Microsoft Edge browser. This will perform a search in Bing, and should provide a link to the install page for the desired browser. The image to the right shows a Bing search for Google Chrome.
A web search for “google chrome” using the Bing search engine with a box around the first result, that being the “Google Chrome Browser | Google’s Official Browser”.
After performing the Bing search, click on the correct entry for the browser you want and find their install button. The installer will be downloaded to your Downloads folder, but in Microsoft Edge you can access it using the toolbar located on the top right of the window once it’s finished downloading.
Once the option is available, open the downloads drop down, denoted by a ↓ symbol, and click open file text under the installer file entry.
The Microsoft Edge downloads tab displaying the recently download “ChromeSetup.exe”.
You can then follow the steps of the installer and open the browser using the icon on the desktop, should one be placed, or by searching for it in the Windows start menu.
Now that you have your preferred browser set up, you can start downloading the software you intend to use on your VPS. This is done the exact same way you’d do it on your Windows PC at home, by navigating to the website, for example the NinjaTrader website, and finding their downloads page.
Once you’ve found it, you click download and the file will appear in your downloads folder. You can open your downloads folder by opening the start menu and clicking on the Documents icon on the bottom left of the start menu, as shown in the image to the right.
With the documents folder open, you’ll want to look on the top left corner of the file explorer under Quick access. One of the default entries will be Downloads preceded with a blue ⇩ icon. Click on that entry and you’ll be taken to your downloads folder, where you’ll find the default download location for most programs, included your recently installed browser.
From here, you can launch the executable you’ve just downloaded for whatever programs your heart desires.
If one of the programs you intend to run on your Trading Server is the popular trading platform NinjaTrader, then you can use the above sections to get your browser set up and locate your downloads folder, and then check out their article on installing their desktop application. The process will be exactly the same as the Windows Server environment functions in a very manner to the Windows 10 environment.
Just like your home Windows PC, your Windows Server VPS will receive updates from the Microsoft servers. These updates may contain new features, bug fixes, or even essential security updates. By default your Windows Server 2019/2022 VPS will check for and install updates at 3am in the system timezone, after which it will restart outside of active hours to finish the installation process .