Good value provider for running Windows in the cloud?

Hi. I'm a Linux user but I own a lot of doohickeys (especially GPS devices) that work best under Windows: firmware upgrading software, syncing software, stuff like that.

What I want to do, but haven't done yet, is (1) to setup a little raspberry pi somewhere in my apartment for the USB port (2) run Windows in the cloud somewhere (3) connect the two with VirtualHere and (4) use some remote desktop software to access the Windows installation and run the proprietary software, which will access the USB port in my apartment. Yay.

What has prevented me this far is step 2: Can anyone recommend a good value cloud provider where I can either get Windows running fairly cheaply either with my own image of Windows, or on an image provided by them, whatever is the cheapest? On average I interface with these USB devices three-four times per week, and only for syncing reasons, which means the VM can be powered off all week except maybe 3-4 times when they will need to run 5 minutes (or whatever). My naive belief is that this "should" be cheap, but I haven't found a provider yet.

Thanks!

#2

When i want to test, i use AWS Micro windows instances which are free (https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing) and boot windows 2016 server then connect to it via RDP.