Windows

Windows inside a Docker container.

Features

• Multi-language
• ISO downloader
• KVM acceleration
• Web-based viewer

Video

Usage

Via Docker Compose:

services:
  windows:
    image: dockurr/windows
    container_name: windows
    environment:
      VERSION: "win11"
    devices:
      - /dev/kvm
    cap_add:
      - NET_ADMIN
    ports:
      - 8006:8006
      - 3389:3389/tcp
      - 3389:3389/udp
    stop_grace_period: 2m

Via Docker CLI:

docker run -it --rm -p 8006:8006 --device=/dev/kvm --cap-add NET_ADMIN --stop-timeout 120 dockurr/windows

Via Kubernetes:

kubectl apply -f kubernetes.yml

FAQ

• How do I use it?

  Very simple! These are the steps:

  • Start the container and connect to port 8006 using your web browser.

  • Sit back and relax while the magic happens, the whole installation will be performed fully automatic.

  • Once you see the desktop, your Windows installation is ready for use.

  Enjoy your brand new machine, and don't forget to star this repo!

• How do I select the Windows version?

  By default, Windows 11 will be installed. But you can add the VERSION environment variable to your compose file, in order to specify an alternative Windows version to be downloaded:

  environment:
    VERSION: "win11"
  

  Select from the values below:

  Value	Version	Size
  win11	Windows 11 Pro	6.4 GB
  win11e	Windows 11 Enterprise	5.8 GB
  win10	Windows 10 Pro	5.8 GB
  ltsc10	Windows 10 LTSC	4.6 GB
  win10e	Windows 10 Enterprise	5.2 GB
  win8	Windows 8.1 Pro	4.2 GB
  win8e	Windows 8.1 Enterprise	3.8 GB
  win7	Windows 7 Enterprise	3.0 GB
  vista	Windows Vista Enterprise	3.0 GB
  winxp	Windows XP Professional	0.6 GB
  2022	Windows Server 2022	4.7 GB
  2019	Windows Server 2019	5.3 GB
  2016	Windows Server 2016	6.5 GB
  2012	Windows Server 2012	4.3 GB
  2008	Windows Server 2008	3.0 GB
  core11	Tiny 11 Core	2.1 GB
  tiny11	Tiny 11	3.8 GB
  tiny10	Tiny 10	3.6 GB

  To install ARM64 versions of Windows use dockur/windows-arm.

• How do I select the Windows language?

  By default, the English version of Windows will be downloaded. But you can add the LANGUAGE environment variable to your compose file, in order to specify an alternative language:

  environment:
    LANGUAGE: "Chinese"
  

  You can choose between Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Thai and Ukrainian.

  If you want to use a keyboard layout or locale that is not the default for the selected language, you can add the KEYBOARD and REGION variables with a culture code, like this:

  environment:
    REGION: "en-US"
    KEYBOARD: "en-US"
  

• How do I change the storage location?

  To change the storage location, include the following bind mount in your compose file:

  volumes:
    - /var/win:/storage
  

  Replace the example path /var/win with the desired storage folder.

• How do I change the size of the disk?

  To expand the default size of 64 GB, add the DISK_SIZE setting to your compose file and set it to your preferred capacity:

  environment:
    DISK_SIZE: "256G"
  

  This can also be used to resize the existing disk to a larger capacity without any data loss.

• How do I share files with the host?

  Open 'File Explorer' and click on the 'Network' section, you will see a computer called host.lan. Double-click it and it will show a folder called Data, which can be binded to any folder on your host via the compose file:

  volumes:
    -  /home/user/example:/shared
  

  The example folder /home/user/example will be available as \\host.lan\Data. You can optionally map this path to a drive letter in Windows, for easier access.

• How do I install a custom image?

  In order to download an unsupported ISO image that is not selectable from the list above, specify the URL of that ISO in the VERSION environment variable, for example:

  environment:
    VERSION: "https://example.com/win.iso"
  

  Alternatively, you can also skip the download and use a local file instead, by binding it in your compose file in this way:

  volumes:
    - /home/user/example.iso:/custom.iso
  

  Replace the example path /home/user/example.iso with the filename of your desired ISO file, the value of VERSION will be ignored in this case.

• How do I customize the installation?

  If you want to modify the settings used during the automatic installation, you can do this by editing the answer file corresponding to your Windows edition, for example win11x64.xml in the case of Windows 11 Pro.

  Apply your modifications to it, and add this line to your compose file:

  volumes:
    -  /home/user/example.xml:/custom.xml
  

  Replace the example path /home/user/example.xml with the filename of the modified XML file.

• How do I run a script after installation?

  To run your own script after installation, you can create a file called install.bat and place it in a folder together with other files it needs (programs to install for example). Then bind it in your compose file like this:

  volumes:
    -  /home/user/example:/oem
  

  The example folder /home/user/example will be copied to C:\OEM during installation and the containing install.bat will be executed during the last step.

• How do I perform a manual installation?

  It's best to use the automatic installation, as it prevents common issues that occur when running Windows inside a virtualized environment and optimizes various settings to give you maximum performance.

  However, if you insist on performing the installation manually, add the following environment variable to your compose file:

  environment:
    MANUAL: "Y"
  

  Then follow these steps:

  • Start the container and connect to port 8006 of the container in your web browser. After the download is finished, you will see the Windows installation screen.

  • Start the installation by clicking Install now. On the next screen, press 'OK' when prompted to Load driver.

  • Select the VirtIO SCSI driver from the list that matches your Windows version. So for Windows 11, select D:\amd64\w11\vioscsi.inf and click 'Next'.

  • Accept the license agreement and select your preferred Windows edition, like Home or Pro.

  • Choose Custom: Install Windows only (advanced), and click Load driver on the next screen.

  • Select 'Browse' and navigate to the D:\NetKVM\w11\amd64 folder, and click 'OK'.

  • Select the VirtIO Ethernet Adapter from the list and click 'Next'.

  • Select Drive 0 and click 'Next'.

  • Wait until Windows finishes copying files and completes the installation.

  • Once you see the desktop, open File Explorer and navigate to the CD-ROM drive (E:\).

  • Double-click on virtio-win-gt-x64.msi and proceed to install the VirtIO drivers.

  Enjoy your brand new machine, and don't forget to star this repo!

• How do I verify if my system supports KVM?

  To verify if your system supports KVM, run the following commands:

  sudo apt install cpu-checker
  sudo kvm-ok
  

  If you receive an error from kvm-ok indicating that KVM acceleration can't be used, check the virtualization settings in the BIOS.

• How do I increase the amount of CPU or RAM?

  By default, 2 CPU cores and 4 GB of RAM are allocated to the container, as those are the minimum requirements of Windows 11.

  If there arises a need to increase this, add the following environment variables:

  environment:
    RAM_SIZE: "8G"
    CPU_CORES: "4"
  

• How do I configure the username and password?

  By default, a user called Docker is created during installation with an empty password. You can change these credentials in your compose file:

  environment:
    USERNAME: "john"
    PASSWORD: "secret"
  

• How do I connect using RDP?

  The web-viewer is mainly meant to be used during installation, as its picture quality is low, and it has no audio or clipboard for example.

  So for a better experience you can connect using any Microsoft Remote Desktop client to the IP of the container, using the username Docker and by leaving the password empty.

  There is a good RDP client for Android available from the Play Store and one for iOS in the Apple Store. For Linux you can use FreeRDP and on Windows just type mstsc in the search box.

• How do I assign an individual IP address to the container?

  By default, the container uses bridge networking, which shares the IP address with the host.

  If you want to assign an individual IP address to the container, you can create a macvlan network as follows:

  docker network create -d macvlan \
      --subnet=192.168.0.0/24 \
      --gateway=192.168.0.1 \
      --ip-range=192.168.0.100/28 \
      -o parent=eth0 vlan
  

  Be sure to modify these values to match your local subnet.

  Once you have created the network, change your compose file to look as follows:

  services:
    windows:
      container_name: windows
      ..<snip>..
      networks:
        vlan:
          ipv4_address: 192.168.0.100
  
  networks:
    vlan:
      external: true
  

  An added benefit of this approach is that you won't have to perform any port mapping anymore, since all ports will be exposed by default.

  Please note that this IP address won't be accessible from the Docker host due to the design of macvlan, which doesn't permit communication between the two. If this is a concern, you need to create a second macvlan as a workaround.

• How can Windows acquire an IP address from my router?

  After configuring the container for macvlan (see above), it is possible for Windows to become part of your home network by requesting an IP from your router, just like a real PC.

  To enable this mode, add the following lines to your compose file:

  environment:
    DHCP: "Y"
  devices:
    - /dev/vhost-net
  device_cgroup_rules:
    - 'c *:* rwm'
  

  Please note that in this mode, the container and Windows will each have their own separate IPs. The container will keep the macvlan IP, and Windows will use the DHCP IP.

• How do I add multiple disks?

  To create additional disks, modify your compose file like this:

  environment:
    DISK2_SIZE: "32G"
    DISK3_SIZE: "64G"
  volumes:
    - /home/example:/storage2
    - /mnt/data/example:/storage3
  

• How do I pass-through a disk?

  It is possible to pass-through disk devices directly by adding them to your compose file in this way:

  devices:
    - /dev/sdb:/disk1
    - /dev/sdc:/disk2
  

  Use /disk1 if you want it to become your main drive, and use /disk2 and higher to add them as secondary drives.

• How do I pass-through a USB device?

  To pass-through a USB device, first lookup its vendor and product id via the lsusb command, then add them to your compose file like this:

  environment:
    ARGUMENTS: "-device usb-host,vendorid=0x1234,productid=0x1234"
  devices:
    - /dev/bus/usb
  

• Is this project legal?

  Yes, this project contains only open-source code and does not distribute any copyrighted material. Any product keys found in the code are just generic placeholders provided by Microsoft for trial purposes. So under all applicable laws, this project would be considered legal.

Stars

Disclaimer

The product names, logos, brands, and other trademarks referred to within this project are the property of their respective trademark holders. This project is not affiliated, sponsored, or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation.