Local Windows on Docker

Local Windows inside a Docker container.

Usage 🐳

Via Docker CLI:

docker run -it --rm -p 8006:8006 --device=/dev/kvm --cap-add NET_ADMIN --mount type=bind,source=./custom.iso,target=/custom.iso --stop-timeout 120 windows-local:latest

Compatibility ⚙️

Product	Platform
Docker Engine	Linux	✅
Docker Desktop	Linux	❌
Docker Desktop	macOS	❌
Docker Desktop	Windows 11	✅
Docker Desktop	Windows 10	❌

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 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: "French"

You can choose between: 🇦🇪 Arabic, 🇧🇬 Bulgarian, 🇨🇳 Chinese, 🇭🇷 Croatian, 🇨🇿 Czech, 🇩🇰 Danish, 🇳🇱 Dutch, 🇬🇧 English, 🇪🇪 Estionian, 🇫🇮 Finnish, 🇫🇷 French, 🇩🇪 German, 🇬🇷 Greek, 🇮🇱 Hebrew, 🇭🇺 Hungarian, 🇮🇹 Italian, 🇯🇵 Japanese, 🇰🇷 Korean, 🇱🇻 Latvian, 🇱🇹 Lithuanian, 🇳🇴 Norwegian, 🇵🇱 Polish, 🇵🇹 Portuguese, 🇷🇴 Romanian, 🇷🇺 Russian, 🇷🇸 Serbian, 🇸🇰 Slovak, 🇸🇮 Slovenian, 🇪🇸 Spanish, 🇸🇪 Swedish, 🇹🇭 Thai, 🇹🇷 Turkish and 🇺🇦 Ukrainian.

How do I select the keyboard layout?

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

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

Note

Changing these values will have no effect after the installation has been performed already. Use the control panel inside Windows in that case.

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"

Tip

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 bound to any folder on your host via the compose file:

volumes:
  -  /home/user/example:/data

The example folder /home/user/example will be available as \\host.lan\Data.

Tip

You can map this path to a drive letter in Windows, for easier access.

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 any additional files it needs (software to be installed for example). Then bind that folder 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 change the amount of CPU or RAM?

By default, the container will be allowed to use a maximum of 2 CPU cores and 4 GB of RAM.

If you want to adjust this, you can specify the desired amount using 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 the installation, with an empty password.

If you want to use different credentials, you can change them in your compose file:

environment:
  USERNAME: "bill"
  PASSWORD: "gates"

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: "French"

You can choose between: 🇦🇪 Arabic, 🇧🇬 Bulgarian, 🇨🇳 Chinese, 🇭🇷 Croatian, 🇨🇿 Czech, 🇩🇰 Danish, 🇳🇱 Dutch, 🇬🇧 English, 🇪🇪 Estonian, 🇫🇮 Finnish, 🇫🇷 French, 🇩🇪 German, 🇬🇷 Greek, 🇮🇱 Hebrew, 🇭🇺 Hungarian, 🇮🇹 Italian, 🇯🇵 Japanese, 🇰🇷 Korean, 🇱🇻 Latvian, 🇱🇹 Lithuanian, 🇳🇴 Norwegian, 🇵🇱 Polish, 🇵🇹 Portuguese, 🇷🇴 Romanian, 🇷🇺 Russian, 🇷🇸 Serbian, 🇸🇰 Slovak, 🇸🇮 Slovenian, 🇪🇸 Spanish, 🇸🇪 Swedish, 🇹🇭 Thai, 🇹🇷 Turkish and 🇺🇦 Ukrainian.

How do I select the keyboard layout?

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

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

Note

Changing these values will have no effect after the installation has been performed already. Use the control panel inside Windows in that case.

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.

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.

Important

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, 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'

Note

In this mode, the container and Windows will each have their own separate IPs.

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 (which will be formatted during installation), and use /disk2 and higher to add them as secondary drives (which will stay untouched).

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

Important

If the device is a USB disk drive, please wait until after the installation is completed before connecting it. Otherwise the installation may fail, as the order of the disks can get rearranged.

How do I verify if my system supports KVM?

Only Linux and Windows 11 support KVM virtualization, macOS and Windows 10 do not unfortunately.

You can run the following commands in Linux to check your system:

sudo apt install cpu-checker
sudo kvm-ok

If you receive an error from kvm-ok indicating that KVM cannot be used, please check whether:

• the virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD SVM) are enabled in your BIOS.

• you enabled "nested virtualization" if you are running the container inside a virtual machine.

• you are not using a cloud provider, as most of them do not allow nested virtualization for their VPS's.

If you didn't receive any error from kvm-ok at all, but the container still complains that /dev/kvm is missing, it might help to add privileged: true to your compose file (or --privileged to your run command), to rule out any permission issue.