Running Windows in a Docker Container!

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Huge thanks to Ridge for sponsoring the video! Use this link to get up to 30% off through April 1st: ridge.com/wolfgang dockur/windows by Kroese: github.com/dockur/windows CORRECTION: This will not work on Mac, only on Linux.

[@michalkurka5810]

It is not running in a docker container. Interesting but the title is really misleading.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

“Running Windows in a VM that is run by a Docker container that mounts /dev/kvm from the host, but also automates the installation for you” doesn’t really roll off the tongue

[@noriller]

Next step: windows distrobox guest?

[@MrDavidebond]

Can also create a template / kvm image using packer, and just run it with kvm. Or if using kubernetes, use kubvirt to run them.

[@mattcoursecareers]

Hey Wolfgang - We sent you an email about a paid partnership. Let me know what you think.

[@ottergauze]

Using WSL under Windows 11 to run Docker, which is also running a container for Linux that is running a virtualisation of Windows 11 is so ridiculously cursed and I LOVE it.

[@Demios101]

Someone stop him!

[@ozymogaming]

@@Demios101 no I use windows WSL too its amazing

[@RedSntDK]

And I thought using Wine via WSL was cursed enough, that's a whole other level 😱

[@adriancoanda9227]

yeah try runnin mac os under gwsl

[@rosyidharyadi7871]

It's tempting to try but I know my computer will hate me for that torture.

[@andrewv5748]

It's not running in a Docker Container. It's running in a KVM backed QEMU VM that is automatically configured by a Docker script. Saves some problems with config at least.

[@lucsoft]

it is? lmao containers are just normal processes with some security flags

[@Diamonddrake]

QEMU is a type-2 userland hypervisor AND a kvm virtualizer. If you set kvm: false in the environment it will run entirely in userland inside docker

[@qazwsx000xswzaq]

It is a KVM in the guise of a docker "container".... An interesting project no doubt.

[@Mempler]

Might actually be useful aswell

[@Henry-sv3wv]

then why not use vagrant

[@ManjaroBlack]

I love that you used the same port as Proxmox, and used Proxmox as your complicated example of running a VM.

[@monad_tcp]

I'm surprised he somehow used KVM with a Mac, or was he remoting into the cluster with that clunky macOs ? or is it a hackintosh also running under KVM ?

[@cheebadigga4092]

@@monad_tcp Medium article "Qemu, virt-manager, and libvirt on macOS with Apple silicon M2".

[@richardl4227]

As an Unraid user I just (un)surprisingly found this image in the Apps. I'm giving it a try and thank you for sharing!

[@GavAttackO]

Woah! This couldn't have come at a better time! I was just looking for a solution to run a DayZ server, a Windows only application, without needing to leave one of our gaming PCs on all the time. Now I just need more RAM before I can setup a VM on my Ubuntu server.

[@zer0pwninit]

oho day Z player here. I love that game

[@JanSieler]

DayZ server running fine on Linux dude. No need for windows at all...

[@GavAttackO]

@@JanSieler Wasn't available at the time.

[@nmap-p-]

7:34 The entirety of RAM and swap being completely pegged by the VMS's

[@baranaltay7547]

Cannot wait for the N100 build video! I’m about to build my home server/nas and I’m about to go with the industrial ASRock board. But I’m holding my horses and waiting patiently for your N100 build. Love your content, keep up the good work! ❤

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Good news - it's coming at the end of the month :)

[@Duckly97]

What an absolutely impeccable timing... I was _just_ about to set up a VM so I could update my damn mouse (love you logitrash

[@tealplastic1234]

Why on Earth would one need to UPDATE the mouse? Security vulnerabilities? 🤣

[@WolfgangsChannel]

@mikhail-plentev You're laughing, but... www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/logitech-unifying-receivers-vulnerable-to-key-injection-attacks/

[@Duckly97]

@@tealplastic1234 Bug with scrolling, sometimes doesn't register when in wireless mode, super annoying

[@LichtTempler]

@@Duckly97, but you still need USB passthrough for it, don't you?

[@Duckly97]

​@@LichtTempler As he said in the video, it uses KVM so you can pass any device through

[@Landon783]

Missed Opportunity: Naming it "Linux Subsystem for Windows"

[@sNaKeEeDK]

Has a lot of potential in CI/CD for testing code

[@AlexAlex-jk2tn]

I reviewed the project and I couldn't found any option for running any command in the container without using GUI. So only wine containers are still the option.

[@Heftall]

@@AlexAlex-jk2tn websocket app running on bootup which you can use for command passed by the container. done.

[@noneyourb172]

Docker tends to ignore UFW and writes to iptables, so be careful with that open 3389.

[@churchofsatan2041]

what is the worse scenario

[@WolfgangsChannel]

@churchofsatan2041 you run this on an unfirewalled machine with a public IP, and then anyone can log in to your Windows container using RDP

[@noneyourb172]

@@WolfgangsChannel My original comment was to say that even if your host machine is firewalled you should double check that you're not exposing 3389 to networks you don't want it to be available on. I ran into that issue with an FTP container on a production machine once. Thankfully blue team found it.

[@ShrirajHegde]

You can just do 127.0.0.1:port:port instead of port:port this will only bind to 127.0.0.1 instead of 0.0.0.0 Docker will ignore any and every firewall rules because that is its purpose. It directly opens ports using iptables. You can use host networking if you want a container to follow your firewall rules.

[@Daniel15au]

nftables, not iptables. iptables is deprecated and will be removed in the future.

[@Mikesco3]

I don't know how you deliver such awesome quality almost every time!!! I totally loved it!

[@silentage6310]

Now I can run heroes III again

[@AROAH]

I was just trying to solve this problem and was gonna end up using Cockpit to manage a dedicated Windows VM. I hadn’t even considered putting a VM inside of a Docker container. That’s so simple but so clever.

[@dauhson_capps]

Just got to say when he said who would want to run all version of windows I thought me!! Im happy he did as well 😂

[@JonathanSwiftUK]

Wolfgang, superb video. How clever of you to know this is exactly what I was looking for.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

0:34 You don't need an MS account. Just choose other and choose a domain, then it lets you sign in locally.

[@haggieber27]

Danke!

[@geerliglecluse5297]

Correction: no one needs a Microsoft Account to run Windows, unless you don't care about your privacy. And that's without any reduction in functionality or support and only a negligible reduction of services.

[@deepankurnayantara]

thanks so much for this! I've been looking for this for so long!

[@drescherjm]

One of my 2024 goals is to begin using Docker for some of my tasks as a software engineer doing medical imaging research. Although this is not exactly what I need I plan to give it a test..

[@vng]

It would be interesting to know how responsive the Windows "docker container" is without a passthrough GPU, since video acceleration would not be available and everything will be rendered via software. Currently, I have a Windows VM with GPU passthrough for my ONE use: running MS Office for work. If the docker container can run with the same responsiveness as an older machine (say, i7-6700 with its iGPU) without the need for a dedicated GPU to be passed through, that would be really great for my use case.

[@paradoxmo]

If you don’t need the OneDrive integration, which doesn’t work well, the Linux version of CrossOver runs Microsoft Office pretty well.

[@applmango]

​@@paradoxmoCrossover is too expensive in most countries

[@paradoxmo]

@@applmango sure, Wine or PlayonLinux then. Or VMware player has decent paravirtualized 3D.

[@harveybolton]

I can't believe I haven't came across this sooner, this is awesome.

[@g-nice_pimp]

Internally we're going to start with setting up the container as a way to test intune and autopilot configurations, before we deploy them in production. Makes testing much easier !

[@Dante-420]

Windows: not even once

[@JorgeObando]

Hello. Thank you for the video, it is really instructive. This is the first video from you I watch, so excuse me if you have already answered my questions in previous videos. I am *really* new into docker, in fact, I am barely documenting on the subject because I recently had the 'idea' of running Office 365 in Docker (knowing nothing about it before hand) instead of my MacOS Parallels Desktop VM which I do since 2010 when I switched from Windows. 1. What would be the advantages of the change, and would be the trade-offs? 2. Since I know *nothing* about Docker except for a couple of videos I have watched about it, would you recommend me to change my VM to Docker? (Knowing I need to use Office 365 for developing macros, Excel, Power Query and other heavy Office add-ins in my day-to-day work) 3. Do you have or do you have links to videos where I can learn Docker from scratch? Thanks!

[@darthcabs]

Did you have to install anything for your macOS to have the file /dev/kvm? Mine doesn't have, even after installing qemu, libvirt and some other software

[@rileycassel6931]

Yeah I'm wondering how to get this to work under MacOS Monterey as well.

[@orkhanalikhanov]

I guess ARM chips just don't have it

[@ladytoky0]

same problem here, it does not work on macOS

[@YoleeR]

I feel like giving it a bunch of resources, PCIe passthrough if possible, and downloading Parsec onto it for cloud gaming. That would be cool.

[@AaronMolligan]

I'm already using harvester to run my vm's and containers. It technically runs vm's as pods ontop of kubernetes so this may not be for me, but I have an idea which I can use this project for, deploying cms windows displays. Since the player will be always be in fullscreen, I can simply use any broswer, connect with ip address and have the content displayed on the tv or media screen device. Thanks very much for the video.

[@tinyreelservicesinternatio575]

Was watching this video in sleepy mode this morning. Great stuff! Even put some smiles on my face and made me laugh! Well done! :) Ive seen all the macOS buttons and was ready to undust my MacBook...but reading your CORRECTION now in the comments. NOT on Mac. Too bad. ^^ Anyway, appreciated!

[@blitzkiek]

I wonder what the viability of running blueiris with gpu decoding is.

[@nixxblikka]

Love your sense of humor. Super subtle.

[@darknewt9959]

Serious technical people look askance when I tell them that containerised Windows is a mere parlour trick. Boss: "Yes but can you look at it please? Our managed service provider has a great new product" Me: "But we're already fully bought into VMware" Boss: "Exactly, and we got gifted all these Tanzu licences" Me: "Errr...." *goes back to Helldivers 2*

[@crelloc]

imma check this out. gotta migrate wine, and lutris to docker and enable gpu support

[@winandd8649]

@Wolfgang's Channel : (a bit off topic here) Would it be an idea to test a range of UPS devices for functionality and power consumption? Every home lab needs a UPS of some sort, and idle power consumption varies a lot between models.. Would be nice to see a shoot out?

[@jburnash]

A truly interesting and definitely useful video - well presented. I'm going to give this a try. Thanks!

[@victoriamilhoan512]

A great explanation, I followed along and did the Win 11 install on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and it was seamless. Thanks!!

[@crelloc]

how does it handle gpu?

[@joaorovira]

Stuck in the step about using remote desktop since my installation didn't come with one and downloading from store doesn't work, even though I have access to the internet god lord.

[@samuelwolfang6311]

Pretty cool! Wouldn’t you lose the best perk of Docker Containers tho? Talking about the fact that they use the same kernel as the host. This seems to me like it only adds an additional, superfluous layer of abstraction

[@saionni]

Error response from daemon: error gathering device information while adding custom device "/dev/kvm": no such file or directory

[@bellawagner4410]

I needed 1 year ago Windows for a game. But I didn‘t want to dualboot. So I setup a VM with libvirt and then did a single-gpu-passthrough. I needed a bit to get it working, because I had a Problem, that was really rare, there was only one open thread that you could find and that was on a Proxmox forum. Without the help of a other person, that found that, I might never get it to work. But with the time I didn‘t used the VM anymore and because I really often switch my Linux Distro, I started to not set it up again and nowadays I don’t have a use case for any VM‘s

[@maximus6884]

This video will hit millions of views!

[@szaszm_]

I can already play minesweeper on Linux with KMines or winemine, and play pinball with the open source SDL version (which I believe is reverse-engineered from winxp). I'm using my Windows VM for compiling C++ code for Windows with MSVC, and occasionally for some light 3D gaming. This would work for the compilation part, even better than a persistent VM.

[@lazerusmfh]

This is a pretty cool idea. My preference would be a win 11 ghost version. I typically do proxmox -> win11 ghost Because running vanillla windows iso is absolutely terrible. I also use templates for this so you only do it once really (might not work for your use case)

[@ducki8845]

What about some Adobe apps in the windows docker 🤔

[@foobaz2387]

I ended in separate computer with windows. As a bonus I can play my favourite windows only games. I have two computers plugged in to the same monitor, use logitech mouse paired with two usb dongles and a keyboard which I switch usb / bluetooth. I use bluetooth with linux, usb with windows.

[@ducki8845]

@@user-fk2xg8nq6r what's your opinion on the "feels"? Does it laggy / unresponsive at some point? Btw, what's the maximum screen resolution you are able to set in the windows setting?

[@DavidT.Photographe]

I can't connect via the Microsoft Remote Desktop but no problem with the browser. Do you have a solution?

[@mkallin75]

Wow seems very useful to me since I yearly need an old Windows program to handle my taxes. It's a hassle every year but this docker might be the solution for running windows 15 minutes yearly.

[@driden1987]

Last night I started looking for alternatives to run Windows on my mac, vid couldn't have had a better timing

[@Equality-and-Liberty]

You could always run a desktop version of VMware (VMware Workstation) and run Windows there, but I guess you want to run open-source software?

[@driden1987]

@@Equality-and-LibertyI've been a bit out of the vm scene and was going to virtualbox it, this served it's purpose and there's no clean up to do after other than image and container in docker, pretty sweet

[@vnyciussilva]

Is there the possibility of doing a pass through and using the video card for this docker and performing heavier tasks such as video editing or games?

[@stifler8798]

Hello...Used in Ubuntu...when you finish using Windows 11 (by default)...what is the path to eliminate the Used and Unnecessary Space by Windows 11 in the Download of the .iso and in the Decompression of the .iso ...Thank you 😊

[@MYBOnline_UK]

Excellent video, Wolfgang. Thank you! Is this possible on docker desktop?

[@harrysearia1784]

Super slick!!!!!! Im not a programmer so its been challenging to find a use case for me to try Docker. This maybe my Gateway drug!

[@censoredeveryday3320]

Just keep in mind that this isn't a real container. Windows is being virtualized by the KVM kernel driver which means it's a VM and not a container. This video is a bit misleading

[@kristopherleslie8343]

Surely you can find something to run in your home lab

[@mrtetillas7504]

work for gaming? i have a t14 gen 2 i5 1135g7, i reed on some forum that this cpu doesn't have GVT-d this use SR-IOV that you can use only with ACRN hypervisor (single iGPU passthrough) arch linux 8gb ram

[@9SMTM6]

There's also quickemu, which IMO seems better at this for a workstation PC. This project however may make more sense if you want the VM to be reachable from outside (and just have a simple setup, no need for something like proxmox), since it comes with a webclient etc.

[@lucagreggio2278]

My heart dropped a beat at the title of the video

[@fabricio4794]

Finally someone show something Very important

[@Heavy_Lvy]

3:25 you still need hardware virtualization right? or it that only for windows cause it requires wsl

[@Chaos666Theory]

If it's KVM, couldn't you just use Virtual Manager?

[@kaufman98]

Why do you want to edit the Z690M-ITX bios? Is there any secret power saving tricks perhaps?

[@censoredeveryday3320]

Is it really a container if it's just using the kvm kernel driver? It's just a VM with docker wrapper around it. I prefer to just run Qemu+KVM or VirtualBox.

[@IftikharMehdi-g3s]

did any of you guys successfully enable gpu for windows container, I did nvidia-smi works inside docker shell but doesn't work in windows

[@theknarf]

So its like Vagrant but inside a Docker container?

[@SolarBuck]

I am going to try and get this running using a stack in a Portainer instance on my ProxMox Server. Should at least be educational. I have a few Windows VMs already running but this looks interesting. It may or may not be more efficient especially if I get it working with one of the tiny windows version you mention. Cheers good content. I may come back and post if I got it working.

[@SolarBuck]

I only spent about 45 minutes but was unsuccessful but really didn't try too hard. I need to read up on deploying stacks in Portainer. I am sure I could spin up a linux VM in proxmox then install docker then run the command and get that working but was hoping it would work easily with Portainer. If I spin up a Linux VM to get this working I might as well just spin up a windows VM. Was interesting to watch I may take another stab at it if I have some free time.

[@SolarBuck]

As I keep digging I fear this may not work. KVM is working on my proxmox server but I have a Debian VM running portainer and it does not have access to KVM. I am not sure how to work around this. Sorry to SPAM your comments. I was super excited as I thought I could get this to work in Portainer and it may work but I am still learning my way around and usually know just enough to get myself into trouble. Cheers on the video! I was trying to use this in a slightly different way. I kinda think of it as the movie inception.

[@StefanoV827]

I need it to code in C# for windows from my MacBook m1 pro. I was evaluating parallels 19... Do you think I can use this one instead? 🤔 I wonder the difference in CPU/RAM % ... Maybe you can make a comparison

[@WolfgangsChannel]

Nope, you need a Linux host for it

[@danialcoder]

this just saved me hours of work, thanks

[@MultiVeniR]

Hey! Do you know why mine keeps resetting after downloading whole windows image? over and over again ;/

[@bes12000]

What I would like to do is just run my already installed windows 11(system is dual boot) through Linux so I dont have to restart for apps that STILL wont run on Linux.

[@alexandredemagalhaes4135]

What a juicy content, thank you sir I was in need of it

[@dennisolsson3119]

This would be incredibly awesome for testing and/or JPackage. I think I know what i'm doing this weekend :)

[@Lahmeinthehouse]

How can you use this to run script serverless, with docker? Like running an azure function app (which are ran in Linux) with a windows docker image? Is it even possible?

[@core36]

I needed a CAD software for 3D printing. After looking at a ton of expensive options, I went with the much more affordable Shapr3D, nice bonus, it works on my iPad. But no Linux version, no way to run the iPad version on Linux, the windows version is a windows store app and i think it’s UWP, which wine doesn’t support, the windows version is trash anyway, lol, and my only option would be to use darling to run the Mac version, but my hopes to run complex gui software is pretty nonexistent. I could just use different software, but it’s meh that software compatibility is still an issue in 2024

[@FranckEhret]

My use case : Windows 2022 core Domain Controller to have a better redundancy by mixing underlying technologiew (VMware host & physical docker host in my case) (in my home lab - not prod)

[@lolcarryclips]

Hey! Can I do that from AWS ECR and ECS?

[@user-ui4fn6fj3p]

AMIBCP 5 does work in wine, I use it all the time

[@0ka354]

It has like 5 different versions, no?

[@user-ui4fn6fj3p]

@@0ka354 Any of them should work

[@WolfgangsChannel]

All I know is that it doesn't work on my machine :)

[@nlmoin990]

What's the performance hit here in comparison with running a VM? Could we pass a whole pci device using this? Yes I I just setup a VM I'm just wondering if someone tested this

[@succeedinlife1256]

All the files gets remove once we shutdown is there anyway we can we can save it for later as well.

[@jonathanchevallier7046]

Thank you for the discovery of this project.

[@p504504]

Hello Wolfie! How about a video of Docker-OSX? I just tried it on my headless J4125 server. Ran like ass but it worked! You might like it!

[@prashikgavali4774]

But what about the size of the image ? It will be huge right ?

[@mrcrackerist]

Currently using Windows to develop and test my software, but I found a second PC using RDP to be the best for this use case.

[@zyghom]

1238 unread emails - seriously? There is not even one day that I would close my laptop with unread emails ;-)

[@RonaldChmara]

Windows product keys used are in the /assets XML files, so if one has licenses, I assume they can pre-configured to "valid" ones. :) Cool idea and workaround!

[@JavierGonzalez-cl6pu]

doubt, could this windows be integrated into "active directory"? Or would the host also have to have such integration?

[@AhmedMOHAMED-hl1hd]

I would be dead than use windows again ever in my life

[@iamfinky]

Thanks for sharing. This is really rather cool to hear about.

[@xtremecoding4005]

Finally! I can use my laptop (which has arch installed btw) for autocad because of a stupid class at uni.

[@hans_kruse]

Does it run in TrueNAS in k3s ? or in LXC on proxmox? Yes I am Terrible. I have myThinkPad running Arch for a while now. this is useful to have a Windows option on standby. Also my one remaining windows box will go native Linux now

[@phunghuyhaiminh2735]

I'm running on Synology's Docker and encountered this error. I don't know what to do, hoping for your help: ❯ ERROR: ❯ ERROR: Failed to create bridge. Please add the following setting to your container: --cap-add NET_ADMIN

[@raghureddy5815]

This was pretty good. However, I could not find an environment setting that would have the container built from a local windows iso file. Is downloading every time the only way for now?

[@hainguyenchi3697]

My Linux host has a couple of Nvidia GPUs and I want the Windows container supporting GPU as well, there is a limit I know but do we have any way to build this sjt ???

[@ionbutuc1028]

How to save the iml file once opened and pasted the commands ? I don't know how to save the file. are there any specific keyboards shortcuts?

[@madhukeshnp]

Can i run 2 or 3 instances of the same program on docker? Like installing the same game twice.

[@Holdamaule]

fantastic. love it.. thanks wolfgang!

[@TechTonor]

Have you tried to compare this with a barebone Windows VM? I have a VM running Windows, for a few dumb apps I'm not using that often. This looks interesting, but I'd be great to know what I should expect as a impact in the performance (overhead, primary) I mean.. I already have Windows running in a QEMU KVM env., so putting that into a Debian or similar distro, just to spin up Windows inside Docker, maybe aren't that best take, if I already have Windows running... Or? That's the actual question, I guess.

[@William14363]

How did you figure out the IP for the server it is hosted on?

[@VulcanoTube]

[Question]: how do i know where the persistent drive is located on my windows 11 machine?

[@necafe1]

After docker installation on my Fedora 41 workstation, I had error message for downloading Windows 11 and error message is below docker: unknown server OS: . See 'docker run --help'. I am stuck on this step. Any help? ( I already checked docker version and start docker also)

[@jordanrowland2760]

Any idea if you can run Visual Studio and WinForms inside this? I imagine there might be a lot of lag, but would be fun to try it

[@fabricio4794]

Lag is when your mom blow my job