VM screenshots provide a visual representation of a VM's state and can help to troubleshoot failed RDP connections to Windows VMs, by identifying if the instance has started successfully. By default, the screenshot for a Workspot GCP VM is disabled.
To enable screenshot functionality by enabling the display device in GCP VMs, follow these steps:
Open the GCP Console
Go to the Google Cloud Console.
Select the project that contains your VM instance.
Stop the VM
Navigate to Compute Engine > VM instances.
Locate the VM instance you want to enable screenshots on.
Click the Stop button to stop the VM if it is running.
Edit VM Configuration
Once the VM is stopped, click on the VM instance name to open the instance details.
Click on the Edit button at the top of the page to modify the VM configuration.
Enable Display Device
Scroll down to the Machine configuration > Advanced Configurations section.
Look for the Display device option, and enable it by checking the box labelled Enable display device.
This allows the VM to support video display and screenshots.
If the option is not visible, ensure that you're editing the correct VM or contact GCP support as this feature might not be enabled for your instance type or instance is not in the stopped state.
Save Changes and Start VM
Click Save to apply the changes.
Once the changes are saved, click the Start button to restart the VM.
Capture Screenshots
Once display device settings are enabled in the Google Console for a VM instance
