[Question]: Create new docker image with Windows preinstalled

[smicker]

Is your question not already answered in the FAQ?

• I made sure the question is not listed in the FAQ.

Is this a general question and not a technical issue?

• I am sure my question is not about a technical issue.

Question

When I first start my docker image, it takes some time for Windows to install. Is it possible to create a docker image where a certain version of Windows is already installed. I just want to pull and run this image and Windows shall already be installed and start up directly when I run my image.

[kroese]

No this is not possible. Because I have no license to distribute files owned by Microsoft in my image

[verydemo]

Pre-install win11, and then activate it when users use it themselves？

[xlazom00]

@kroese
It will be nice to have a option to call docker build .......
and as output there will be docker image with some version of windows and everything inside image

So I can just call docker run
and would see "windows something" :)

[smicker]

@kroese Thanks for the answer. I see, it is the winX.iso files that you cannot provide in the images, right?
But both suggestions from @verydemo and @xlazom00 is of interest. It would be nice if I could docker build a new image myself that I only store locally and possibly also add my own Windows license to.

[sujianwei1]

Why does Windows get reinstalled every time Docker is restarted?

[kroese]

@sujianwei1 Probably you are deleting the volume, hard to say without any additional info. Please open a seperate issue.

[tomaszduda23]

No this is not possible. Because I have no license to distribute files owned by Microsoft in my image

hashicorp package windows image. It is distributed as vagrant boxes. https://portal.cloud.hashicorp.com/vagrant/discover?query=windows
I think that all of them use evaluate iso https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-11-enterprise. That way license is valid for 90-days.

https://github.com/gusztavvargadr/packer/blob/6e42b873b4529eb8dc113f4df24823698fe9595e/samples/windows-11/images.pkrvars.hcl