Bring Your Own Windows Desktop Licenses

If your licensing agreement with Microsoft allows it, you can use your Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows 10 Pro desktop licenses for your WorkSpaces. To do this, you must Bring Your Own License (BYOL) and provide a Windows 10 license that meets the following requirements. To stay compliant with Microsoft licensing terms, AWS runs your BYOL WorkSpaces on hardware that is dedicated to you in the AWS Cloud. By bringing your own license, you can provide a consistent experience for your users. For more information, see Amazon WorkSpaces Pricing.

Important

Image creation is not supported on Windows 10 systems that have been upgraded from one version of Windows 10 to a newer version of Windows 10 (a Windows feature/version upgrade). However, Windows cumulative or security updates are supported by the WorkSpaces image-creation process.

To get started, open the Amazon WorkSpaces console and choose Account Settings to enable your account for BYOL.

Requirements

Before you begin, verify the following:

• Your Microsoft licensing agreement allows Windows to be run in a virtual hosted environment.

• If you will be using non-GPU-enabled bundles (bundles other than Graphics and GraphicsPro), verify that you will use a minimum of 200 Amazon WorkSpaces per Region. These 200 WorkSpaces can be any mix of AlwaysOn and AutoStop WorkSpaces. Using a minimum of 200 WorkSpaces per Region is a requirement for running your Amazon WorkSpaces on dedicated hardware. Running your Amazon WorkSpaces on dedicated hardware is necessary to comply with Microsoft licensing requirements. The dedicated hardware is provisioned on the AWS side, so your VPC can stay on default tenancy.

  If you plan to use GPU-enabled (Graphics and GraphicsPro) bundles, verify that you will run a minimum of 4 AlwaysOn or 20 AutoStop GPU-enabled WorkSpaces in a Region per month on dedicated hardware.

• Amazon WorkSpaces can use a management interface in the /16 IP address range. The management interface is connected to a secure Amazon WorkSpaces management network used for interactive streaming. This allows Amazon WorkSpaces to manage your WorkSpaces. For more information, see Network Interfaces. You must reserve a /16 netmask from at least one of the following IP address ranges for this purpose:

  • 10.0.0.0/8

  • 100.64.0.0/10

  • 172.16.0.0/12

  • 192.168.0.0/16

  • 198.18.0.0/15

  Note

  As you adopt the WorkSpaces service, the available management interface IP address ranges frequently change. To determine which ranges are currently available, run the list-available-management-cidr-ranges AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) command.

• You have a virtual machine (VM) that runs a supported 64-bit version of Windows. For a list of supported versions, see the next section in this topic, Windows Versions That Are Supported for BYOL. The VM must also meet these requirements:

  • The Windows operating system must be activated against your key management servers.

  • The Windows operating system must have English (United States) as the primary language.

  • No software beyond what is included with Windows can be installed on the VM. You can add additional software, such as an antivirus solution, when you later create a custom image.

  • Do not customize the default user profile (C:\Users\Default) or make other customizations before creating an image. All customizations should be made after image creation. We recommend making any customizations to the user profile through Group Policy Objects (GPOs) and applying them after image creation. This is because customizations done through GPOs can be easily modified or rolled back and are less prone to error than customizations made to the default user profile.

  • You must create a WorkSpaces_BYOL account with local administrator access before you share the image. The password for this account might be required later, so make note of it.

  • The VM must be on a single volume with a maximum size of 70 GB and at least 10 GB of free space. If you're also planning to subscribe to Microsoft Office for your BYOL image, the VM must be on a single volume with a maximum size of 70 GB and at least 20 GB of free space.

  • Your VM must run Windows PowerShell version 4 or later.

• Make sure that you have installed the latest Microsoft Windows patches before running the BYOL Checker PowerShell script in Step 2 later in this topic.

Windows Versions That Are Supported for BYOL

Your VM must run one of the following Windows versions:

• Windows 10 Version 1803 (April 2018 Update)

• Windows 10 Version 1809 (October 2018 Update)

• Windows 10 Version 1903 (May 2019 Update)

• Windows 10 Version 1909 (November 2019 Update)

• Windows 10 Version 2004 (May 2020 Update)

All supported OS versions support all of the compute types available in the AWS Region where you're using WorkSpaces. Versions of Windows that are no longer supported by Microsoft are not guaranteed to work and are not supported by AWS Support.

Adding Microsoft Office to Your BYOL Image

During the BYOL image ingestion process, if you are using Windows 10, you have the option to subscribe to Microsoft Office Professional 2016 (32-bit) or 2019 (64-bit) through AWS. If you choose this option, Office is pre-installed in your BYOL image and included on any WorkSpaces that you launch from this image.

If you choose to subscribe to Office through AWS, additional charges will apply. For more information, see Amazon WorkSpaces Pricing.

Important

• If Microsoft Office is already installed on the VM that you are using to create your BYOL image, you must uninstall it from the VM if you want to subscribe to Office through AWS.

• If you plan to subscribe to Office through AWS, make sure that your VM has at least 20 GB of free disk space.

If you choose to subscribe to Office, the BYOL image ingestion process takes a minimum of 3 hours.

For details about subscribing to Office during the BYOL ingestion process, see Step 5: Create a BYOL Image by Using the Amazon WorkSpaces Console.

Office Language Settings

We choose the language used for your Office subscription based on the AWS Region where you're performing your BYOL image ingestion. For example, if you're performing your BYOL image ingestion in the Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Region, your Office subscription has Japanese as its language.

By default, we install a number of frequently used Office language packs on your WorkSpaces. If the language pack that you want isn't installed, you can download additional language packs from Microsoft. For more information, see Language Accessory Pack for Office in the Microsoft documentation.

To change the language for Office, you have several options:

• Option 1: Allow individual users to customize their Office language settings on their WorkSpaces

• Option 2: Use GPO administrative templates (.admx/.adml) to enforce default Office language settings for all of your WorkSpaces users

• Option 3: Update the Office language registry settings on your WorkSpaces

For more information about working with the language settings for Office, see Customize language setup and settings for Office in the Microsoft documentation.

Option 1: Allow individual users to customize their Office language settings

Individual users can adjust the Office language settings on their WorkSpaces. For more information, see Add an editing or authoring language or set language preferences in Office in the Microsoft documentation.

Option 2: Use GPO administrative templates (.admx/.adml) to enforce default Office language settings for all of your WorkSpaces users

You can use Group Policy Object (GPO) settings to enforce default Office language settings for your WorkSpaces users.

Note

Your WorkSpaces users will not be able to override language settings enforced through GPO.

For more information about using GPO to set the language for Office, see Customize language setup and settings for Office in the Microsoft documentation. Office 2016 and Office 2019 use the same GPO settings (labeled with Office 2016).

To work with GPOs, you must install the Active Directory administration tools. For information about using the Active Directory administration tools to work with GPOs, see Set Up Active Directory Administration Tools for Amazon WorkSpaces.

Before you can configure Office 2016 or Office 2019 policy settings, you must download the administrative template files (.admx/.adml) for Office from the Microsoft Download Center. After you download the administrative template files, you must add the office16.admx and office16.adml files to the Central Store of the domain controller for your WorkSpaces directory. (The office16.admx and office16.adml files apply to both Office 2016 and Office 2019.) For more information about working with .admx and .adml files, see How to create and manage the Central Store for Group Policy Administrative Templates in Windows in the Microsoft documentation.

The following procedure describes how to create the Central Store and add the administrative template files to it. Perform the following procedure on a directory administration WorkSpace or Amazon EC2 instance that is joined to your WorkSpaces directory.

To install the Group Policy administrative template files for Office

1. Download the administrative template files (.admx/.adml) for Office from the Microsoft Download Center.

2. On a directory administration WorkSpace or Amazon EC2 instance that is joined to your WorkSpaces directory, navigate to the domain's shared network folder. This folder will have your organization's fully qualified domain name (FQDN), such as \\example.com. In the Windows File Explorer, go to Network > FQDN.

3. Open the SYSVOL folder.

4. Open the folder with the FQDN name.

5. Open the Policies folder. You should now be in \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\Policies.

6. If it doesn't already exist, create a folder named PolicyDefinitions.

7. Open the PolicyDefinitions folder.

8. Copy the office16.admx file into the \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\Policies\PolicyDefinitions folder.

9. Create a folder named en-US in the PolicyDefinitions folder.

10. Open the en-US folder.

11. Copy the office16.adml file into the \\FQDN\SYSVOL\FQDN\Policies\PolicyDefinitions\en-US folder.

To configure the GPO language settings for Office

1. On your directory administration WorkSpace or Amazon EC2 instance that is joined to your WorkSpaces directory, open the Group Policy Management tool (gpmc.msc).

2. Expand the forest (Forest:FQDN).

3. Expand Domains.

4. Expand your FQDN (for example, example.com).

5. Select your FQDN, open the context (right-click) menu or open the Action menu, and choose Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here.

6. Name your GPO (for example, Office).

7. Select your GPO, open the context (right-click) menu or open the Action menu, and choose Edit.

8. In the Group Policy Management Editor, choose User Configuration, Policies, Administrative Template Policy definitions (ADMX files) retrieved from the local computer, Microsoft Office 2016, and Language Preferences.

   Note

   Office 2016 and Office 2019 use the same GPO settings (labeled with Office 2016). If you don't see Administrative Template Policy definitions (ADMX files) retrieved from the local computer under User Configuration, Policies, the office16.admx and office16.adml files aren't correctly installed on your domain controller.

9. Under Language Preferences, specify the language that you want for the following settings. Be sure to set each setting to Enabled, and then under Options, select the language you want. Choose OK to save each setting.

   • Display Language > Display help in

   • Display Language > Display menus and dialog boxes in

   • Editing languages > Primary Editing Language

10. Close the Group Policy Management tool when you're finished.

11. Group Policy setting changes take effect after the next Group Policy update for the WorkSpace and after the WorkSpace session is restarted. To apply the Group Policy changes, do one of the following:

    • Reboot the WorkSpace (in the Amazon WorkSpaces console, select the WorkSpace, then choose Actions, Reboot WorkSpaces).

    • From an administrative command prompt, enter gpupdate /force.

Option 3: Update the Office language registry settings on your WorkSpaces

To set the Office language settings through the registry, update the following registry settings:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\LanguageResources\UILanguage

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\LanguageResources\HelpLanguage

For these settings, add a DWORD key value with the appropriate Office locale ID (LCID). For example, the LCID for English (US) is 1033. Because LCIDs are decimal values, you must set the Base option for the DWORD value to Decimal. For a list of the Office LCIDs, see Language identifiers and OptionState Id values in Office 2016 in the Microsoft documentation.

You can apply these registry settings to your WorkSpaces through GPO settings or a logon script.

Adding Office to Your Existing BYOL WorkSpaces

You can also add a subscription to Office to your existing BYOL WorkSpaces. After you have created a BYOL bundle with Office installed, you can use the WorkSpaces migration feature to migrate your existing BYOL WorkSpaces to the BYOL bundle that is subscribed to Office. For more information, see Migrate a WorkSpace.

Migrating Between Versions of Microsoft Office

To migrate from Office 2016 to Office 2019 or from Office 2019 to Office 2016, you must create a BYOL bundle that is subscribed to the version of Office that you want to migrate to. Then, you use the WorkSpaces migration feature to migrate your existing BYOL WorkSpaces that are subscribed to Office to the BYOL bundle that is subscribed to the version of Office that you want to migrate to.

For example, to migrate from Office 2016 to Office 2019, create a BYOL bundle that is subscribed to Office 2019. Then use the WorkSpaces migration feature to migrate your existing BYOL WorkSpaces that are subscribed to Office 2016 to the BYOL bundle that is subscribed to Office 2019.

For more information about the migration process, see Migrate a WorkSpace.

Unsubscribing from Office

To unsubscribe from Office, you must create a BYOL bundle that is not subscribed to Office. Then use the WorkSpaces migration feature to migrate your existing BYOL WorkSpaces to the BYOL bundle that is not subscribed to Office. For more information, see Migrate a WorkSpace.

Office Updates

If you have subscribed to Office through AWS, Office updates are included as part of your regular Windows updates. To stay current on all security patches and updates, we recommend that you periodically update your BYOL base images.

Step 1: Enable BYOL for Your Account by Using the Amazon WorkSpaces Console

To enable BYOL for your account, you must specify a management network interface. This interface is connected to a secure Amazon WorkSpaces management network. It is used for interactive streaming of the WorkSpace desktop to Amazon WorkSpaces clients, and to allow Amazon WorkSpaces to manage the WorkSpace.

Note

The steps in this procedure for enabling BYOL for your account need to be performed only once per account, per Region.

To enable BYOL for your account by using the Amazon WorkSpaces console

1. Open the Amazon WorkSpaces console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Account Settings. If your account is not currently eligible for BYOL, a message provides guidance for next steps.

3. Under Bring Your Own License (BYOL), in the Management network interface IP address range area, choose an IP address range, and then choose Display available CIDR blocks.

   Amazon WorkSpaces searches for and displays available IP address ranges as IPv4 Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks, within the range that you specify. If you require a specific IP address range, you can edit the search range.

   Important

   After you specify an IP address range, you cannot modify it. Make sure to specify an IP address range that doesn't conflict with the ranges used by your internal network. If you have any question about which range to specify, contact your AWS account manager or sales representative, or contact the AWS Support Center before proceeding.

4. Choose the CIDR block that you want from the list of results, and then choose Enable BYOL.

   This process may take several hours. While Amazon WorkSpaces is enabling your account for BYOL, proceed to the next step.

Step 2: Run the BYOL Checker PowerShell Script on a Windows VM

After you enable BYOL for your account, you must confirm that your VM meets the requirements for BYOL. To do so, perform these steps to download and run the Amazon WorkSpaces BYOL Checker PowerShell script. The script performs a series of tests on the VM that you plan to use to create your image.

Important

The VM must pass all tests before you can use it for BYOL.

To download the BYOL Checker script

Before you download and run the BYOL Checker script, verify that the latest Windows security updates are installed on your VM. While this script runs, it disables the Windows Update service.

1. Download the BYOL Checker script .zip file from https://tools.amazonworkspaces.com/BYOLChecker.zip to your Downloads folder.

2. In your Downloads folder, create a BYOL folder.

3. Extract the files from BYOLChecker.zip and copy them to the Downloads\BYOL folder.

4. Delete the Downloads\BYOLChecker.zip folder so that only the extracted files remain.

Perform these steps to run the BYOL Checker script.

To run the BYOL Checker script

1. From the Windows desktop, open Windows PowerShell. Choose the Windows Start button, right-click Windows PowerShell, and choose Run as administrator. If you are prompted by User Account Control to choose whether you want PowerShell to make changes to your device, choose Yes.

2. At the PowerShell command prompt, change to the directory where the BYOL Checker script is located. For example, if the script is located in the Downloads\BYOL directory, enter the following command and press Enter:

   cd C:\Users\username\Downloads\BYOL

3. Enter the following command to update the PowerShell execution policy on the computer. Doing so allows the BYOL Checker script to run:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

4. When prompted to confirm whether to change the PowerShell execution policy, enter A to specify Yes to All.

5. Enter the following command to run the BYOL Checker script:

   .\BYOLChecker.ps1

6. If a security notification appears, press the R key to Run Once.

7. In the Amazon WorkSpaces Image Validation dialog box, choose Begin Tests.

8. After each test is completed, you can view the status of the test. For any test with a status of FAILED, choose Info to display information about how to resolve the issue that caused the failure. If any tests display a status of WARNING, choose the Fix All Warnings button.

9. If applicable, resolve any issues that cause test failures and warnings, and repeat Step 7 and Step 8 until the VM passes all tests. All failures and warnings must be resolved before you export the VM.

10. The BYOL script checker generates two log files, BYOLPrevalidationlogYYYY-MM-DD_HHmmss.txt and ImageInfo.text. These files are located in the directory that contains the BYOL Checker script files.

    Tip

    Do not delete these files. If an issue occurs, they might be helpful in troubleshooting.

11. After your VM passes all tests, you get a Validation Successful message. Review the VM locale settings displayed in the tool. To update the locale settings, follow these instructions in the Microsoft documentation and run the BYOL Checker script again.

12. Shut down the VM and create a snapshot of it.

13. Start the VM again. Choose Run Sysprep. If Sysprep is successful, your VM that you exported after Step 12 can be imported into Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). Otherwise, review the Sysprep logs, roll back to the snapshot taken at Step 12, resolve the reported issues, take a new snapshot, and run the BYOL Checker script again.

    The most common reason that Sysprep fails is that the Modern AppX Packages are not uninstalled for all users. Use the Remove-AppxPackage PowerShell cmdlet to remove the AppX Packages.

14. After you have successfully created your image, you can remove the WorkSpaces_BYOL account.

Step 3: Export the VM from Your Virtualization Environment

To create an image for BYOL, you must first export the VM from your virtualization environment. The VM must be on a single volume with a maximum size of 70 GB and at least 10 GB of free space. For more information, see the documentation for your virtualization environment and Export Your VM from its Virtualization Environment in the VM Import/Export User Guide.

Step 4: Import the VM as an Image into Amazon EC2

After you export your VM, review the requirements for importing Windows operating systems from a VM. Take action as needed. For more information, see VM Import/Export Requirements.

Note

Importing a VM with an encrypted disk is not supported. If you've opted in to default encryption for Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes, you must deselect that option before importing your VM.

Import your VM into Amazon EC2 as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). Use one of the following methods:

• Use the import-image command with the AWS CLI. For more information, see import-image in the AWS CLI Command Reference.

• Use the ImportImage API operation. For more information, see ImportImage in the Amazon EC2 API Reference.

For more information, see Importing a VM as an Image in the VM Import/Export User Guide.

Step 5: Create a BYOL Image by Using the Amazon WorkSpaces Console

Perform these steps to create an Amazon WorkSpaces BYOL image.

Note

To perform this procedure, verify that you have AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions to:

• Call Amazon WorkSpaces ImportWorkspaceImage.

• Call Amazon EC2 DescribeImages on the Amazon EC2 image that you want to use to create the BYOL image.

• Call Amazon EC2 ModifyImageAttribute on the Amazon EC2 image that you want to use to create the BYOL image.

For more information, see Changing Permissions for an IAM User in the IAM User Guide.

To create a Graphics or GraphicsPro bundle from your image, contact the AWS Support Center to get your account added to the allow list. After your account is on the allow list, you can use the AWS CLI import-workspace-image command to ingest the Graphics or GraphicsPro image. For more information, see import-workspace-image in the AWS CLI Command Reference.

To create an image from the Windows VM

1. Open the Amazon WorkSpaces console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Images.

3. Choose Actions, Create BYOL Image.

4. In the Create BYOL Image dialog box, do the following:

   • For AMI ID, click the EC2 Console link, and choose the Amazon EC2 image that you imported as described in the previous section (Step 4: Import the VM as an Image into Amazon EC2). The image name must begin with ami- and be followed by the identifier for the AMI (for example, ami-1234567e).

   • For BYOL image name, enter a unique name for the image.

   • For Image description, enter a description to help you quickly identify the image.

   • For Ingestion process, choose the appropriate bundle type (either Regular, Graphics, or GraphicsPro). For non-GPU-enabled bundles (bundles other than Graphics or GraphicsPro), choose Regular.

   • (Optional) For Applications, choose which version of Microsoft Office you want to subscribe to. For more information, see Adding Microsoft Office to Your BYOL Image.

5. Choose Create.

   While your image is being created, the image status in the image registry of the console appears as Pending. The BYOL ingestion process takes a minimum of 90 minutes. If you have subscribed to Office as well, expect the process to take a minimum of 3 hours.

   If the image validation does not succeed, the console displays an error code. When the image creation is complete, the status changes to Available.

Step 6: Create a Custom Bundle from the BYOL Image

After your BYOL image is created, you can use the image to create a custom bundle. For information, see Create a Custom WorkSpaces Image and Bundle.

Step 7: Register a Directory for Dedicated WorkSpaces

To use BYOL images for WorkSpaces, you must register a directory for this purpose. To do so, perform these steps.

To register a directory for dedicated WorkSpaces

1. Open the Amazon WorkSpaces console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Directories.

3. Select the directory and choose Actions, Register.

4. In the Register directory dialog box, for Enable Dedicated WorkSpaces, choose Yes.

5. Choose Register.

If you have already registered an AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory or an AD Connector directory for WorkSpaces that does not run on dedicated hardware, you can set up a new AWS Managed Microsoft AD directory or AD Connector directory for this purpose. You can also deregister the directory and then reregister it as a directory for dedicated WorkSpaces. To do so, perform these steps.

Note

You can only perform this procedure if no WorkSpaces are associated with the directory.

To deregister a directory and reregister it for dedicated WorkSpaces

1. Open the Amazon WorkSpaces console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/workspaces/.

2. Terminate existing WorkSpaces.

3. In the navigation pane, choose Directories.

4. Select the directory and choose Actions, Deregister.

5. When prompted for confirmation, choose Deregister.

6. Select the directory again and choose Actions, Register.

7. In the Register directory dialog box, for Enable Dedicated WorkSpaces, choose Yes.

8. Choose Register.

Step 8: Launch Your BYOL WorkSpaces

After you register a directory for dedicated WorkSpaces, you can launch your BYOL WorkSpaces in this directory. For information about how to launch WorkSpaces, see Launch a Virtual Desktop Using Amazon WorkSpaces.