Connecting to the Instance

See: Connecting to Your Windows Instance Using RDP in Amazon’s AWS documentation for more information.

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.     In the Connect To Your Instance dialog, choose Get Password (it will take a few minutes after the instance is launched before the password is available).

5.     Choose Choose File and navigate to the private key file you created when you launched the instance. Select the file and choose Open to copy the entire contents of the file into the contents box.

6.     Choose Decrypt Password. The console displays the default administrator password for the instance in the Connect To Your Instance dialog, replacing the link to Get Password shown previously with the actual password.

7.     Record the default administrator password, or copy it to the clipboard. You need this password to connect to the instance.

8.     Choose Download Remote Desktop File. Your browser prompts you to either open or save the .rdp file. Either option is fine. When you have finished, you can choose Close to dismiss the Connect To Your Instance dialog.

9.     You may get a warning that the publisher of the remote connection is unknown. Choose Connect to connect to your instance.

10.   When prompted, log in to the instance, using the administrator account for the operating system and the password that you recorded or copied previously. If your Remote Desktop Connection already has an administrator account set up, you might have to choose the Use another account option and enter the user name and password manually.

11.   Due to the nature of self-signed certificates, you may get a warning that the security certificate could not be authenticated. Choose Yes or Continue to continue.

12.   A Windows Networks message is displayed asking if "you want to allow your PC to be discoverable by other PCs and devices on this network?" Click Yes.

13.   After you connect, we recommend that you change the administrator password from the default value. You change the password while logged on to the instance itself, just as you would on any other Windows Server.

Note:        Due to the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), the recommended method for changing the password is to press CTRL+ALT+END, and then select Change a password.