This tutorial is for advanced users only and is provided with absolutely no warranty or support.

We have scripts available to make this process easier here.

Selecting an Instance

Amazon AWS

AWS g2.2xLarge

AWS G3.4xLarge

Microsoft Azure

NV6

Paperspace

P5000

P4000

Other Providers

Must support running in WDDM mode and must be able to visualize the display output (Instances with P100, V100 and K80 for example do not support this).

NVIDIA GTX Cards in hosting providers are not supported unless they have a HDMI Headless Dongle installed.

Networking

Assign a Static Public IP or Dynamic Public IP address and allow all traffic outbound through your cloud providers firewall.  

If you must lock it down, allow UDP 8000-8011 outbound and HTTPS.

Paperspace needs a static IP purchased as by default the instances are behind NAT.

RDP Into The Machine And Install VNC Or Teamviewer

 

Use VNC Or Teamviewer To Set Up Parsec

When you create the machine, you should create a Key Pair in AWS or grab the Windows administrator password provided by your cloud provider. 

• Install Parsec from our site.
• Log in to Parsec on the cloud machine with your credentials and save password.
• Enable hosting within the Parsec app.

• Set Parsec to launch on start right click on the Parsec logo on the task tray and click "Run Parsec when my computer starts."

• If you opened the UDP ports in the last section, visit the network settings tab and add the first port in the range you chose. In our example above, we used 8000.

 

Disable CTRL+ALT+Delete

Note: Parsec now supports passing CTRL+ALT+DEL! We are leaving this here in case it's helpful.

Parsec does not pass CTRL+ ALT + DEL to the host, so if your instance ever locks due to inactivity, you should disable the requirement for CTRL + ALT + DEL on the login screen.

Local Security Policy -> Local Policies -> Security Options -> Interactive Logon: Do not require CTRL + ALT + DEL

Set this to "Enabled"

 Setting A More Reasonable Password

• Auto-assigned key pair passwords can be annoying to remember. We suggest changing the Windows Administrator password to something you can remember.
• Open Computer management.
• On the left, click System Tools -> Local Users and Groups - > Users.
• Select Administrator.
• Set Password (and click Proceed).
• Set password to something complex and memorable.

Setting Up Nvidia Drivers

You need to install Server 2016 drivers for your instance GPU type from NVIDIA.com

Setting Up Nvidia Drivers On M60 GPUs

• If you're using an M60 GPU (NV series on Azure and g3 series on AWS), you need to switch the driver mode for the GPU to function as a cloud gaming GPU. This is required for the GPU to be the display adapter in the server. 
• Change directories via command prompt to C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVSMI
• Run command nvidia-smi and take note of the GPU ID number that looks like "00000000:00:03.0"

• RDP into the machine.
• Disable the Microsoft Basic Display adapter, then make the NVIDIA card the default (after driver install).
• We also install a virtual sound card called Virtual Audio Cable, but any virtual sound device will do. 

Decide how you want to login

Parsec does not pass your login credentials to the host machine - and the Parsec service is not "userless"

This means in order for Parsec to work, the user must be first logged in.

Easy / Insecure - 

Automatically log into your user profile on boot

1) Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon.
2)Right-click in the white space below the other values to create new string value DefaultUserName to parsec.
3) Right-click in the white space below the other values to create new string value DefaultPassword (or create as string value) and set it to the user password you set during setup.
4) Right-click in the white space below the other values to create new string value AutoAdminLogon to 1.

Hard / Secure -

Connect to the instance with RDP and and create a batch file task to run at login (as Administrator) on the host that will drop the RDP session to "console".  This is a sample script from Steam Forum user Amorpheous that works well

@powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "$sessionid=((quser $env:USERNAME | select -Skip 1) -split '\s+')[2]; tscon $sessionid /dest:console" 2> UnlockErrors.log

 

All Done!

You should be able to connect to your own instance

 

 

Other Cloud Gaming Providers

Parsec has worked on many other cloud providers. We haven't really tested anywhere beyond AWS, Azure, and Paperspace. Other users have reported using Parsec on Simplay and LiquidSky. Simplay has a guide for their support of Parsec. There may be compatibility issues on those cloud providers. 

• For Simplay, please check out their guide here.
• For Paperspace, they offer a Parsec Public Template.
• For AWS, we have some AMIs available that you can find in the public AMI search.
• If you'd like to use Parsec on LiquidSky, one user created this setup guide.