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Linux Windows
A startup script is a file that contains commands that run when a virtual machine (VM) instance boots. Compute Engine provides support for running startup scripts on Linux VMs and Windows VMs.
The following table contains links to documentation that describes how to use startup scripts.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-05-06 UTC."],[[["Startup scripts are files containing commands that execute upon the boot of a virtual machine (VM) instance, supported by both Linux and Windows VMs."],["Startup scripts can be passed directly, from a local file, or from Cloud Storage, depending on the script's size, with direct and local files limited to 256 KB, and Cloud Storage for larger scripts."],["You can use startup scripts to pass different values to each VM via metadata."],["You can rerun a startup script without having to restart the VM."],["There is documentation to describe how to monitor the progress of a script when it is running, and also how to add a shutdown script."]]],[]]
