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.

[@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

[@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

[@nmap-p-]

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

[@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!

[@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.

[@AQDuck]

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

[@mikhail-pletnev]

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/

[@AQDuck]

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

[@LichtTempler]

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

[@AQDuck]

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

[@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.

[@Landon783]

Missed Opportunity: Naming it "Linux Subsystem for Windows"

[@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

[@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 :)

[@TheStevenWhiting]

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

[@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

[@deepankurnayantara]

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

[@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.

[@Dante-420]

Windows: not even once

[@JonathanSwiftUK]

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

[@haggieber27]

Danke!

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@blitzkiek]

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

[@saionni]

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

[@harveybolton]

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

[@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!

[@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.

[@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

[@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 !

[@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..

[@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.

[@crelloc]

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

[@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

[@theknarf]

So its like Vagrant but inside a Docker container?

[@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?

[@nixxblikka]

Love your sense of humor. Super subtle.

[@Heavy_Lvy]

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

[@kaufman98]

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

[@jburnash]

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

[@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?

[@VulcanoTube]

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

[@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?

[@rbaleksandar]

I do recall there was a requirement for containers with Windows to only run on a licensed Windows installation though. Did this change?

[@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

[@kronosthesoulshaker]

Let me know when you have a video running windows in a Vanilla OS container or similar. Thanks

[@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

[@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!

[@Chaos666Theory]

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

[@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?

[@MYBOnline_UK]

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

[@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.

[@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 😊

[@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?

[@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.

[@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?

[@declanmcardle]

@9:15 If MS had a problem, would they have already stopped WoR? (Windows on Raspberry)

[@MultiVeniR]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@sheharyarakhtar]

Theres an application that I can use to change the RGB lights on my keyboard but it only has windows compatibility. Would it be possible to run windows in a container, install that application in that container and then use it to change the lights on my keyboard?

[@hcjkruse]

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

[@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

[@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

[@jason54953]

this has been an amazing project, thank you. I'm finding that GPU is not supported on Windows 11 pro Docker that I have deployed via Portainer. I have issued similar compose files and GPU does work via Docker when utilizing Ubuntu. Have you seen this issue as well?

[@prashikgavali4774]

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

[@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.

[@succeedinlife1256]

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

[@fabricio4794]

Finally someone show something Very important

[@sawyerprod99]

Thank you, this is awesome ! I was wondering, on Proxmox, is there a port or an equivalent of this project, but in an LXC container ?

[@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 :)

[@JavierGonzalez-cl6pu]

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

[@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.

[@JtechnologySeatosky]

Thanks to you, I installed Docker container but I was stuck on downloading Windows. Error message is below docker: unknown server OS: But I installed Docker container and version info is below Docker version 27.3.1, build ce12230 I am using Fedora though

[@Allanon86-]

does this solution avoid the problem of nested virtualization on Apple silicon chips? context: the apps I require to test on windows need wsl2+docker (on windows). at the moment (at my knowledge) is not possible to achieve this environment on any Apple silicon chip (like M1, M2 or M3) forcing me to use a separate machine with x86_64 cpu

[@paradoxmo]

It would not avoid it, you won’t be able to run WSL2 inside this. If you’re using VMs anyway, just use WSL1 and use the VM network to connect to a docker daemon on a Linux VM.

[@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.

[@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)

[@bluesquadron593]

Can you use this to update the host PC bios? Often that is the easiest from windows.

[@WolfgangsChannel]

I don't think so

[@marcq1588]

Thank you. This is brilliant. I do have a question. How did you download that youtube video using ed/ ? I can't figure that out. Also, how do you run the multiple version of Windoze at the same time? How does your compose.yaml file looks like for that? I tried creating another with different ports for the noVNC, but I could never connect to it. I see you have all the shared data* folders in the same folder. If you could share this step that would be great. Enjoying your videos :)

[@MB-cz1go]

Is it possible to install this "Windows" in a Synology NAS Docker (Container Manager)? I found it dockurr/windows in the registration tab in my Synology, but it is not possible to run it. Can you give me some tips?

[@Equality-and-Liberty]

I don't see why it can't be run on a Synology. It is just a container like all the other containers. The only problem you can have is that it consumes a lot of resources, and that is the reason why I am not going to run it on Synology.

[@madhukeshnp]

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

[@technicommedia]

Would this work on a Synology or UGREEN NAS? If possible, what would the steps be?

[@fjfjfjfjfjfj973]

How do you edit BIOS when it's still vm with own BIOS?

[@SSJ0016]

It outputs a bios file, which you can load to a flash drive, boot to your bios, and load the configuration file there. It's not docker updating the bios directly. At least that's what I think is happening

[@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.

[@MrDominosify]

I saw in your start menu you have Lumiar Neo. Have you tested that in this setup? I used to try to get some photo editing tools to run in a kvm vm, but there was always the problem of not having installed opencl or some other hardware acceleration frameworks. Could say something more about that?

[@WolfgangsChannel]

I've no idea what Luminar Neo is, sorry

[@MrDominosify]

​@@WolfgangsChannelit's in the start menu at 5:53 but I guess that this is a windows ad then hahaha

[@William14363]

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

[@nightwalker83]

Would for older Windows versions too?

[@victorcastro4162]

Does anyone know why the container stops after a few minutes of being started?

[@r4m3200]

Hi, I have proxmox on a server with the virtaulize option enabled, but when I create a VM does not allow me to create the container because there is no /dev/kvm, I have to create the machine with some option ?

[@Holdamaule]

fantastic. love it.. thanks wolfgang!

[@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)

[@alexandredemagalhaes4135]

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

[@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!

[@danialcoder]

this just saved me hours of work, thanks

[@maximus6884]

This video will hit millions of views!

[@jeffsadowski]

How could it apply a firmware update for your system in a VM?

[@zyghom]

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

[@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*