Create Windows instance in AWS

1) Login into Amazon Management Console and click ‘Launch Instance’.

In the right top corner, you can choose which region you want the server to be placed.

2) Select an OS type. Here I choose Windows 2012 /w SQL express. Give the instance a name then click ‘Download’ to get the key pair which will be used to generate the password.

3) Click ‘Edit details’ if you want to modify the default settings. For example, change the Type to something else if you want a Powerful instance. Then click ‘Launch’.

4) The Windows instance will be created shortly. You can right click the instance and choose to get the system log.

5) Before connect to the instance, we need to open RDP ports. Go the left pane and choose ‘Security Groups’, then create a security group to allow inbound RDP traffic.

6) Assign the added security group to the the instance by right click the instance and choose ‘Change Security Groups’.

7) Right click the instance and choose ‘Connect’.

8) Click ‘Retrieve Password’, then choose the pem file that you downloaded in step 2.  Then click ‘Decrypt Password’ to get your administrator’s password.

9) Launch the RDP client or download the RDP shortcut, then connect to the instance.