It took me around 15 minutes to actually start with the lab tasks. I read the instructions around 5 times over, but it was not helping me to actually start. Luckily, I had a full hour for the lab, so I could afford spending those minutes figuring it out.
So after reading the instructions I clicked the link to start the VM. At that point, I expected to enter the password mentioned in the instructions, but I didn't need it yet, which already felt a bit odd.
When the VM opened, I only saw a blank desktop with a few icons, including an authenticator (no browser). After some minutes (totally confused), I scrolled down and found a quick-start Edge icon in the taskbar, which I clicked. I think my subconscious linked the authenticator icon to the portal login page, because I used that pattern a lot with the Whizlabs labs. In my work Azure account, I hardly need to log in manually.
I typed the Azure Portal and Azure DevOps URLs directly into the address bar and logged in with the username, password, and authenticator from the desktop. After that, I could finally start the lab. Luckily, typing "dev" already suggested the right Azure DevOps account. In the pressure of the moment I didn't look for bookmarks in the browser, but these could also have been there.
What surprised me is that these steps were not clearly mentioned in the lab instructions. So if you're starting AZ-400 labs and the VM looks "too empty" at first, don't panic — check the taskbar, open Edge, and go straight to the portal and DevOps.
Good luck with your exam!
