Connect to your Windows instance using an RDP client

You can connect to your Windows instance using an RDP client as follows.

Tip

Alternatively, you can connect to your Windows instance using Systems Manager Fleet Manager or EC2 Instance Connect Endpoint.

Prerequisites

You must meet the following prerequisites to connect to your Windows instance using an RDP client.

• Complete the general prerequisites.

  • Check that your instance has passed its status checks. It can take a few minutes for an instance to be ready to accept connection requests. For more information, see View status checks.

  • Get the required instance details.

  • Locate the private key and set permissions.

  • (Optional) Get the instance fingerprint.

• Install an RDP client.

  • (Windows) Windows includes an RDP client by default. To verify, type mstsc at a Command Prompt window. If your computer doesn't recognize this command, see the Windows home page and search for the download for the Microsoft Remote Desktop app.

  • (macOS X) Download the Microsoft Remote Desktop app from the Mac App Store.

  • (Linux) Use Remmina.

• Allow inbound RDP traffic from your IP address.

  Ensure that the security group associated with your instance allows incoming RDP traffic from your IP address. For more information, see Rules to connect to instances from your computer.

Retrieve the administrator password

If you joined your instance to a domain, you can connect to your instance using the domain credentials from AWS Directory Service. On the Remote Desktop login screen, instead of using the local computer name and the generated password, use the fully-qualified user name for the administrator (for example, corp.example.com\Admin), and the password for this account.

To connect to a Windows instance using RDP, you must retrieve the initial administrator password and then enter this password when you connect to your instance. It takes a few minutes after instance launch before this password is available.

The default username for the Administrator account depends on the language of the operating system (OS) contained in the AMI. To ascertain the correct username, identify the language of your AMI's OS, and then choose the corresponding username. For example, for an English OS, the username is Administrator, for a French OS it's Administrateur, and for a Portuguese OS it's Administrador. If a language version of the OS does not have a username in the same language, choose the username Administrator (Other). For more information, see Localized Names for Administrator Account in Windows in the Microsoft TechNet Wiki.

To retrieve the initial administrator password

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

3. Select the instance and then choose Connect.

4. On the Connect to instance page, choose the RDP client tab.

5. For Username, choose the default username for the Administrator account. The username you choose must match the language of the operating system (OS) contained in the AMI that you used to launch your instance. If there is no username in the same language as your OS, choose Administrator (Other).

6. Choose Get password.

7. On the Get Windows password page, do the following:

   1. Choose Upload private key file and navigate to the private key (.pem) file that you specified when you launched the instance. Select the file and choose Open to copy the entire contents of the file to this window.

   2. Choose Decrypt password. The Get Windows password page closes, and the default administrator password for the instance appears under Password, replacing the Get password link shown previously.

   3. Copy the password and save it in a safe place. This password is required to connect to the instance.

Connect to your Windows instance

The following procedure uses the Remote Desktop Connection client for Windows (MSTSC). If you're using a different RDP client, download the RDP file and then see the documentation for the RDP client for the steps to establish the RDP connection.

To connect to a Windows instance using an RDP client

1. On the Connect to instance page, choose Download remote desktop file. When the file download is finished, choose Cancel to return to the Instances page. The RDP file is downloaded to your Downloads folder.

2. Run mstsc.exe to open the RDP client.

3. Expand Show options, choose Open, and select the .rdp file from your Downloads folder.

4. By default, Computer is the public IPv4 DNS name of the instance and User name is the administrator account. To connect to the instance using IPv6 instead, replace the public IPv4 DNS name of the instance with its IPv6 address. Review the default settings and change them as needed.

5. Choose Connect. If you receive a warning that the publisher of the remote connection is unknown, choose Connect to continue.

6. Enter the password that you saved previously, and then choose OK.

7. Due to the nature of self-signed certificates, you might get a warning that the security certificate could not be authenticated. Do one of the following:

   • If you trust the certificate, choose Yes to connect to your instance.

   • [Windows] Before you proceed, compare the thumbprint of the certificate with the value in the system log to confirm the identity of the remote computer. Choose View certificate and then choose Thumbprint from the Details tab. Compare this value to the value of RDPCERTIFICATE-THUMBPRINT in Actions, Monitor and troubleshoot, Get system log.

   • [Mac OS X] Before you proceed, compare the fingerprint of the certificate with the value in the system log to confirm the identity of the remote computer. Choose Show Certificate, expand Details, and choose SHA1 Fingerprints. Compare this value to the value of RDPCERTIFICATE-THUMBPRINT in Actions, Monitor and troubleshoot, Get system log.

8. If the RDP connection is successful, the RDP client displays the Windows login screen and then the Windows desktop. If you receive an error message instead, see Remote Desktop can't connect to the remote computer. When you are finished with the RDP connection, you can close the RDP client.

Configure user accounts

After you connect to your instance over RDP, we recommend that you perform the following tasks:

• Change the administrator password from the default value. You can change the password while you are logged on to the instance itself, just as you would on any computer running Windows Server.

• Create another user with administrator privileges on the instance. This is a safeguard in case you forget the administrator password or have a problem with the administrator account. The new user must have permission to access the instance remotely. Open System Properties by right-clicking on the This PC icon on your Windows desktop or File Explorer and selecting Properties. Choose Remote settings, and choose Select Users to add the user to the Remote Desktop Users group.