Resolution

Retrieve your initial administrator password with the Amazon EC2 console or the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI).

Retrieve your initial administrator password using the Amazon EC2 console

Note: This method requires an Amazon EC2 key pair.

• If you lost your key pair, then see How can I reset the administrator password on an EC2 Windows instance?
• If you need an Amazon EC2 key pair, then see Create a key pair using Amazon EC2.

Follow these steps:

1.    Open the Amazon EC2 console, and then choose Instances.

2.    Select the check box for the instance, and then expand the Actions dropdown list. For the old console, choose Get Windows Password. For the new console, choose Security, and then choose Get Windows Password.
Note: When you first launch a new instance, this option might not be available for a few minutes.

3.    Choose Browse, select your key pair file, and then choose Open.

-or-

Paste the contents of your key pair into the text box.

4.    Choose Decrypt Password.

Retrieve your initial administrator password using the AWS CLI

Note: If you receive errors when running AWS CLI commands, make sure that you're using the most recent version of the AWS CLI.

Use the get-password-data command. For example syntax, see Examples.

Related information

Getting started with Amazon EC2 Windows instances

Connect to your Windows instance