Install Boto3 (AWS SDK for Python) in Visual Studio Code (VS Code) on Windows

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Michael Pietroforte

Michael Pietroforte is the founder and editor in chief of 4sysops. He has more than 35 years of experience in IT management and system administration.

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Amazon's cloud is still the undisputed market leader. Python is the most popular programming language (Python just sacked C and Java), and VS Code is most likely the most used free Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Thus, it makes sense to bring all three together. This allows you to manage and automate AWS right from VS Code with an easy-to-learn scripting language with an enormous number of code samples and a lot of support on the web.

Install Python on Windows

First, we need to install Python on Windows. You can install Python from the Store, but I prefer the real thing. Download the latest stable release of Python. I don't recommend working with the latest release. Windows is already unstable enough. You don't want to add more experimental software to your computer.

I used the 64-bit Python installer on Windows 11. Be sure select Add Python 3.10 to Path. That way, Windows will always automatically find the Python installation when you execute a Python script.

Install Python on Windows 11

You have to reboot after the installation to add PATH. To verify that everything worked, run python -V to display the installed Python version number.

Display Python version number

Install PIP on Windows

Pip is Python's package manager, and we need it to install Boto3. First, download the get-pip.py Python script to your computer from the pip documentation page. Then, install pip with this command:

python get-pip.py

After the installation, you can check which pip version you installed with pip -V.

Install pip on Windows

Install Boto3 on Windows

Now you can install Boto3 on Windows with this command:

pip install boto3

Install Boto3 with pip on Windows

If you didn't install the AWS CLI on your Windows machine, you have to add the configuration and the credentials file to your home folder (C:Users\YourUsername). First, create a new folder called .aws and then create two new files, config and credentials.

In the config file, specify the AWS region and the output format. For instance:

[default]
region=us-west-2
output=json

The credentials file looks like this:

[default]
aws_access_key_id=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE
aws_secret_access_key=wJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

You can find the AWS access keys (access key ID and secret access key) after you sign into the AWS Console by clicking Security Credentials in the upper right corner under your user name.

Install VS Code

If you haven't installed VS Code yet, you can download it from Microsoft here. I used the 64-bit installer on Windows 11.

By the way, if you don't want Microsoft to harvest your private data, I highly recommend that you disable telemetry altogether. To do so, in VS Code, click File > Preferences > Telemetry Settings and then choose Off as Telemetry Level.

Disable telemetry in Visual Studio Code

Next, install Microsoft's Python extension. In VS Code, click in the left sidebar, then Extension, and then search for "Python." You will see many Python extensions, but the first one should be the one from Microsoft. That's the one we need here.

Install the Python extension in Visual Studio Code

Testing Boto3

Now, you are ready to run your first Python script using Boto3. The sample Python script below lists all of your EC2 instances in AWS.

import boto3
ec2 = boto3.resource('ec2')
for instance in ec2.instances.all():
     print(
         "Id: {0}\nPlatform: {1}\nType: {2}\nPublic IPv4: {3}\nAMI: {4}\nState: {5}\n".format(
         instance.id, instance.platform, instance.instance_type, instance.public_ip_address, instance.image.id, instance.state
         )
     )

Create a new file in VS Code and save it using the file extension .py. Then, you can run the Python script by simply clicking the debug button icon in the upper left corner of VS Code. VS Code will display the output in the Terminal window.

Running a Python script with Boto3 in Visual Studio Code

Congrats, you are now ready to become a DevOps engineer. 😉