Things I Learned

while trying to get Windows 10 on Amazon EC2.

3DMark Result

  • Xbox App doesn’t install on Windows Server 2019. Wants to ‘upgrade’ your 2019 to Windows 10.
  • AWS EC2 doesn’t have Windows 10 AMIs
  • Installing Windows 10 in VM on a small storage, with the intention of growing later, is hindered by Windows 10 creating a 500MB recovery partition after your main partition. Can’t delete via Disk Management, but via diskpart works.
  • AWS G4 instances require ENA drivers
  • Updating existing AMI is easy. Just snapshot a volume and create AMI.
  • Parsec GPU Updater doesn’t support Windows 10: “Sorry, this Operating system (Microsoft Windows 10 Pro) is not yet supported by this tool.”
  • Parsec doesn’t like running under RDP, so you need AutoLogon. Sysinternals Autologon is good for this.
  • Installing AWS Powershell tools was a bit confusing. Following AWS Docs doesn’t give me Set-AWSCredential. Install-Module -Name AWS.Tools.Common gives this. AWS.Tools.S3 gives Get-S3Object.

AWS EC2 NVIDIA

  • g4dn.xlarge instance has VEN_10DE&DEV_1EB8.
  • “15000 The host encoder failed to initialize”. Using the public nvidia.com drivers fails with this. Parsec docs says for NVENC you need the licensed Grid or vGaming drivers.
  • Installing the vGaming drivers makes this error go away, but still limited to 1366x768.
  •  PS C:\> & 'C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI\nvidia-smi.exe' --query
 ...
 vGPU Software Licensed Product
     Product Name                      : NVIDIA Virtual Applications
     License Status                    : Licensed
 ...

    This product name needs to be:

     vGPU Software Licensed Product
     Product Name                      : NVIDIA vGaming
     License Status                    : Licensed
  • Don’t forget to follow the rest of the instructions on this page
  • “14003 (Failed to Capture the Host Display)”. Used TeamViewer to see system sees two displays. Display 1 on Basic Display. Display 2 on NVIDIA. Set to only display on 2.
  • Working!

AWS EC2 AMD

  • g4ad instance has following GPU: “%AMD7362.1%” = ati2mtag_Navi10, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7362&REV_C3 = “AMD Radeon Pro V520 MxGPU”
  • AWS AMD GPU drivers don’t wanna install. Manually browsing to Packages\Display\Drivers for driver install says no drivers found.
  • Maybe OS support in inf? “NTamd64.10.0.2, NTamd64.10.0.3”.
  • AMD Radeon PRO Software for Enterprise 21.Q1 supports Windows 10, but don’t list DevID 7362 in the inf.
  • “%AMD7312.1%” = ati2mtag_Navi10. “AMD Radeon Pro W5700” seems close, but installing driver seems to not end.
  • Gave up on this.

Steam

  • “Would you like to accept secure desktop input from Steam?”. Has to be done locally, but no local console on EC2. tscon 1 /dest:console disconnects my RDP.
  • Tried TeamViewer, then didn’t get the question anymore. But streaming_client.exe kept hanging locally every few minutes.
  • Gave up on this, went back to parsec.