Does AWSEC2-CloneInstanceAndUpgradeWindows work if User Interface services are installed

The AWSEC2-CloneInstanceAndUpgradeWindows automation should work with User Interface services installed, as long as you don't have the Remote Desktop Services roles installed. The documented restrictions specifically exclude instances with Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH), Remote Desktop Connection Broker (RDCB), Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RDVH), or Remote Desktop Web Access (RDWA) roles installed. Simply having the graphical user interface components like 'Graphical Management Tools and Infrastructure' and 'Server Graphical Shell' installed for administrator RDP access does not fall under these restricted roles. These UI features are part of the standard Windows Server interface options and are distinct from the Remote Desktop Services role infrastructure. As long as the Remote Desktop Services role itself remains unchecked and you're only using the basic graphical interface features for administrative purposes, the automation should proceed without issues.
Sources
Use Automation runbooks to upgrade an EC2 Windows instance - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

It should work, though it is not officially guaranteed. The restriction applies to "Roles," not "Features."

The following four items are officially unsupported:

• Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH)
• Remote Desktop Connection Broker (RDCB)
• Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RDVH)
• Remote Desktop Web Access (RDWA)

These are all role services under the RDS role. In contrast, "Graphical Management Tools and Infrastructure" and "Server Graphical Shell" are Features and are classified differently within Windows Server.

Additionally, administrative RDP (allowing two simultaneous sessions) is a standard Windows Server feature that does not require the RDS role. Therefore, if the four roles listed above are not installed, the restriction mentioned in the documentation does not apply.

Supporting evidence for the detection logic

The pre-check script identifies features with names containing "Remote Desktop" using Get-WmiObject Win32_ServerFeature. Even in a Windows Server 2019 GUI environment, it returns the result RDSRole | OK | No RDS roles installed. This indicates that GUI features do not trigger this condition.

Command to run before execution:

powershell
Get-WindowsFeature | Where-Object {
$_.DisplayName -match "Remote Desktop" -and $_.InstallState -eq "Installed"
} | Select-Object Name, DisplayName

There is no issue if RDS-RD-Server, RDS-Connection-Broker, RDS-Virtualization, or RDS-Web-Access do not appear in the output. Since it is possible for the RDS role itself to be installed without its sub-roles, please verify the actual installation status.