This genuine Windows 10 Pro Desktop HVM is a modern, elegant and comfortable front-end user computing experience featuring the Microsoft Windows 10 Operating System. Windows Pro supports remote RDP sessions, making this is a state-of-the-art remote workstation solution for centralized access to your important software and files that you can access from just about any PC, Phone or Tablet! MS Windows 10 Pro can also be joined to Active directory for centralized user authentication. Best of all, because it is genuine Microsoft operating system, it is compatible with just about all Microsoft and Microsoft compatible software. No need for emulators or other tricks to run your Windows applications.
NOTE: AN INSTANCE REBOOT AFTER LAUNCH MAYBE BE REQUIRED TO SET PASSWORD TO INSTANCE ID AND/OR ADD KEY. This is because a new instance doesn’t always know it has been rebooted and it doesn’t run cloud init process to update keys and passwords. Reboot will fix that.
HOW TO LOG IN USING SSH CLIENT WITH SSH KEY:
SSH ACCESS WITH SSH KEY:
3. Find out how to install, configure and/or use SSH client WITH SSH keypair on your particular device. Once installed and configured, launch your SSH client. IF YOU GENERATED A PRIVATE KEY, THE CORRESPONDING PUBLIC KEY MUST BE UPLOADED TO AWS TO BE USED AT LAUNCH TIME. YOU CANNOT LAUNCH FIRST THEN ADD A NEW KEY!
NOTE: DO NOT RUN AWS EC2CONFIG SYSPREP – your system will become unreachable via RDP. You can use EC2CONFIG for other options, just don’t run SYSPREP. If you are reading this too late, read on. If you are unable to access the AMI via RDP due to AWS EC2CONFIG SYSPREP, try using SSH. ID is ‘administrator’ without the quotes, and password is whatever you changed it to, or the instance id, if you did not (ever) change the password. Use SSH to log into a PowerShell command-line session, then disable the firewall, re-enable, and restart the Remote Desktop service.
IMPORTANT NOTE: if you do purchase a Product Key from Microsoft Store or a reseller; your Product Key is likely not reusable on ANY other instances. Never terminate the original instance where you entered a Product Key without validating you can reuse the license on a new instance. The easiest way to validate the portability (or lack of portability) of your machine is to create an AMI from the licensed instance, and boot from the new AMI. Then, once booted, log in and see if the license on the AMI copy launched instance is Activated, or not.
Usually, a Product Key can only be reused on the same hardware. This hardware ‘signature’ differs from one instance to the next and typically new instances created from an AMI of an activated instance will themselves be deactivated. Typically, you will need to provision via a License Server to manage multiple machines. Even then, the licenses may not actually be portable; you will be consuming a license for each new instance. But, with bulk license purchases, paying per new instance may still be economically reasonable. We are not emphasizing this, but in some use cases, Activation may be optional. The desktop and all necessary features work without Activation.
ALSO NOTE: DO NOT TRY TO UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 11. Win 10 Pro is usually sensible enough to stop you from upgrading if you do try, but if you coerce it into upgrading, the instance will likely become unusable and you will lose your license because the license is not portable to another instance.
HOW TO LAUNCH YOUR NEW AMI
1. In the AWS Console, Launch your AMI, Ensure you enable Public IP address, and use a valid SSH key (either generate a new one or ensure you have the private key from a previously uploaded public key). Add a security group that allows port 22 and port 3389 from your IP address, or use 0.0.0.0/0 to allow from anywhere. More instruction on how to configure your VPC, Security Groups, and so forth, are outside the scope of this documentation. Refer to the latest official documentation in your region for more details on the exact methodology for the particular EC2 resource(s) you need to configure before launching.
2. Wait until your EC2 instance fully boots – the initial boot time can be anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes or more, depending on instance type, whether it is on reserved hardware, how busy Amazon is, and so forth. Note the public IP address, you can copy this to your clipboard and paste it where needed. Hint: use AWS console instance screen snapshot option and refresh often to see progress to the logon screen and when it is ready before trying your SSH or RDP connection. It’s cool to watch!
NOTE: AN INSTANCE REBOOT AFTER LAUNCH MAYBE BE REQUIRED TO SET PASSWORD TO INSTANCE ID AND/OR ADD KEY. This is because a new instance. usually doesn’t know it has been rebooted and doesn’t always run cloud init process to update keys and passwords. Reboot will fix that.
HOW TO LOG IN USING SSH CLIENT WITH SSH KEY:
SSH ACCESS WITH SSH KEY:
3. Find out how to install, configure and/or use SSH client WITH SSH keypair on your particular device. Once installed and configured, launch your SSH client. IF YOU GENERATED A PRIVATE KEY, THE CORRESPONDING PUBLIC KEY MUST BE UPLOADED TO AWS TO BE USED AT LAUNCH TIME. YOU CANNOT LAUNCH FIRST THEN ADD A NEW KEY!
4. SSH with username administrator and the private key specified at launch. Administrator ID has ‘root’ privileges. Example: ssh -i <path-to-private-key> administrator@<ec2-public-dns-name-of-my-instance>
5. If prompted, type ‘yes’ and/or press enter to accept the fingerprint of the remote host you just SSH to
6. A command prompt ‘DESKTOP-SOMELETTERS C:\users\Administrator>‘ should print, you are at the PowerShell command prompt. More information on how to use PowerShell and about the zillions of PowerShell commands is of course, outside the scope of this document.
SSH ACCESS WITHOUT SSH Key
7. Find out how to install, configure and/or use SSH client on your particular device
8. Copy-and-paste the Instance ID from step 2 above to the clipboard of your device, this is the Administrator password.
9. Launch, SSH with username administrator and paste the Instance ID when prompted for a password.
Example: ssh administrator@<ec2-public-ip-address>
password: <instance-id>
RDP ACCESS:
10. Find out how to install, configure and/or use RDP at port 3389 (default for most clients) to log in on your particular device. Instruction for Windows PC and Windows Surface’s RDP client follows:
11. On a Windows PC: Search for Program or File–> Type in the words ‘Remote Desktop Connection’ and press enter. For other OS distributions, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone, etc, search for RDP with the appropriate search bar for that operating system. Go back to 10 above if no RDP client is found on the device.
6. Select the ‘Remote Desktop Connection’ application in the search results
7. In the window that opens, copy-and-paste the IP address noted in Step 2 into the first field, called ‘Computer:’, press ‘Connect’ Button.
8 The next screen will warn “The identity of the remote computer connection cannot be verified’ — click the ‘Yes’ button to continue
9. In login dialog window that appears, for ‘User name’, type in ‘Administrator’ without the single quotes; in the box below that paste the Instance ID as copied in Step 2 above; press ‘Connect’ button in lower right of dialog window.
10. THE SCREEN CAN TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES TO FINALLY LOG IN!!!! This is the time it takes for the Administrator desktop to be created and various settings made before your session can begin. PLEASE BE PATIENT!
11. When finished YOU DO NOT NEED TO LOGOUT OF THE DESKTOP SESSION. Instead, simply disconnect your RDP client. As long as you do not shut-down your instance or restart the Windows 10 Pro desktop, the next time you return to your RDP session and log in, it will take you to your previous Desktop session much more quickly! If you do shutdown your instance, to save on usage costs for example, never terminate a licensed (activated) instance: only stop and start it, as needed.