Bring Your Own Windows desktop licenses in WorkSpaces - Amazon WorkSpaces
Windows versions supported for BYOLVideos on uploading and creating BYOL imagesLink BYOL accounts in WorkSpaces

Bring Your Own Windows desktop licenses in WorkSpaces

If your licensing agreement with Microsoft allows it, you can bring and deploy your Windows 10 or 11 desktop on your WorkSpaces. To do this, you must enable Bring Your Own License (BYOL) and provide a Windows 10 or 11 license that meets the requirements below. For more information about using Microsoft software on AWS, see Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.

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 WorkSpaces Pricing.

Important

Image creation is not supported on Windows 10 or 11 systems that have been upgraded from one version of Windows 10 or 11 to a newer version of Windows 10 or 11 (a Windows feature/version upgrade). However, Windows cumulative or security updates are supported by the WorkSpaces image-creation process.

Windows versions supported for BYOL

Your VM must run one of the following Windows versions:

  • Windows 10 Version 22H2 (November 2022 Update)

  • Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 (1809)

  • Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 (21H2)

  • Windows 11 Enterprise 23H2 (October 2023 release)

  • Windows 11 Enterprise 22H2 (October 2022 release)

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.

Note

Windows 10 N and Windows 11 N versions are not supported for BYOL at this time.

Videos on uploading and creating BYOL images

For a demonstration on uploading BYOL images, watch the following videos.

For a demonstration on creating BYOL images with Microsoft Hyper-V, watch the following video.

For a demonstration on creating BYOL images with VMware Workstation, watch the following video.

You can use BYOL linking to link accounts and share BYOL configurations. BYOL configurations include the CIDR range used by your accounts and the images you use to create WorkSpaces with your Windows license. All accounts that are linked share the same underlying hardware infrastructure.

The account enabled for BYOL linking is the primary owner of the underlying hardware infrastructure, and is called the Source account. The Source account manages access to the underlying hardware infrastructure. Target accounts are the accounts that are linked to the Source account.

Important

APIs for BYOL account linking are not available in the AWS GovCloud (US) Region.

Note

The AWS accounts that you want to link with must be part of your organization and under the same payer account. You can only link accounts within the same Region.

To link the Source and Target accounts

  1. Send an invitation link from your Source account to the Target account by using the CreateAccountLinkInvitation API.

  2. Accept the pending link from your Target account by using the AcceptAccountLinkInvitation API.

  3. Verify the link has been established by using the GetAccountLink or ListAccountLinks API.