How to Install and Configure Nginx on a Windows Server VPS

Open PowerShell as administrator and create the installation directory:

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path "C:\nginx" -Force
Set-Location "C:\nginx"

This directory will hold the binary, the configuration files, and the logs. Keeping everything under C:\nginx simplifies the paths in nginx.conf and avoids problems with spaces (do not use C:\Program Files\).

Download the latest stable Windows release of Nginx:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.27.3.zip" -OutFile "nginx.zip"

Check the current version at nginx.org/en/download.html before running — the mainline branch (1.27.x) receives fixes more frequently. The stable branch (1.26.x) is a more conservative alternative for production.

Extract the archive and lay out the contents at the root of C:\nginx:

Expand-Archive -Path "nginx.zip" -DestinationPath "C:\nginx-temp"
Move-Item -Path "C:\nginx-temp\nginx-1.27.3\*" -Destination "C:\nginx" -Force
Remove-Item -Path "C:\nginx-temp", "C:\nginx\nginx.zip" -Recurse -Force

After this, C:\nginx should contain nginx.exe and the conf, html, logs, and temp folders.

Start Nginx in the foreground:

Set-Location "C:\nginx"
.\nginx.exe

The command returns immediately — Nginx keeps running in the background. Open a browser on the VPS itself and visit http://localhost. The default “Welcome to nginx!” page should appear.

Stop the process manually before moving on:

.\nginx.exe -s stop

Use -s quit to shut down gracefully (waits for active connections to finish) or -s stop to terminate immediately.

Create rules for HTTP and HTTPS:

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Nginx HTTP" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 80 -Action Allow
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Nginx HTTPS" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 443 -Action Allow

By default, this applies to every profile (Domain, Private, Public). If your VPS sits on a mixed network, validate with Get-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Nginx*" | Format-List.

Download and extract NSSM:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://nssm.cc/release/nssm-2.24.zip" -OutFile "C:\nssm.zip"
Expand-Archive -Path "C:\nssm.zip" -DestinationPath "C:\nssm-temp"
Move-Item -Path "C:\nssm-temp\nssm-2.24\win64\nssm.exe" -Destination "C:\nginx\nssm.exe"
Remove-Item -Path "C:\nssm-temp", "C:\nssm.zip" -Recurse -Force

The win64 folder contains the 64-bit binary. If your VPS is 32-bit (rare today), use win32.

Register the service pointing at nginx.exe:

C:\nginx\nssm.exe install Nginx "C:\nginx\nginx.exe"
C:\nginx\nssm.exe set Nginx AppDirectory "C:\nginx"
C:\nginx\nssm.exe set Nginx Start SERVICE_AUTO_START
C:\nginx\nssm.exe set Nginx AppStdout "C:\nginx\logs\service-stdout.log"
C:\nginx\nssm.exe set Nginx AppStderr "C:\nginx\logs\service-stderr.log"

The AppDirectory parameter is critical — without it, Nginx looks for conf/nginx.conf in the wrong directory and fails silently.

Start the service and enable autostart:

Start-Service Nginx
Get-Service Nginx

The Status column should show Running. From now on, Nginx comes up automatically when the server reboots.

Edit the main configuration file:

notepad C:\nginx\conf\nginx.conf

Inside the http { ... } block, add a server block to reverse-proxy an application running on localhost:3000 (typical for Node.js):

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name app.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

The X-Real-IP and X-Forwarded-For headers preserve the real client IP for the backend application. The Upgrade and Connection lines enable WebSockets.

To serve static files directly, add another server block:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name static.yourdomain.com;
    root C:/sites/static;
    index index.html;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location ~* \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|svg|css|js|woff2)$ {
        expires 30d;
        add_header Cache-Control "public, immutable";
    }
}

Pay attention to path format: inside nginx.conf use forward slashes (C:/sites/static), never backslashes. Nginx on Windows interprets \ as an escape character.

Validate the configuration before reloading:

C:\nginx\nginx.exe -t

The expected output is syntax is ok followed by test is successful. Any error reports the exact line number.

Reload Nginx without stopping the service:

C:\nginx\nginx.exe -s reload

The master process reads the new nginx.conf and spawns updated workers, while the old ones keep serving in-flight connections until they finish.