First, you need a hypervisor, then a compatible ISO file, followed by VM configuration, partitioning, Windows installation, driver setup, and so on. In short: It’s doable, but not exactly pleasant.

But what if I told you that you could launch a full Windows installation inside a Docker container—with shared storage, RDP access, and optional VLAN support? Sounds crazy? It kind of is. But it works.

The Idea Behind the Project

A developer named Kroese published a GitHub project that makes this possible. A Docker container that automatically sets up a fresh Windows installation—no manual setup required. Just start the container, wait a few minutes, and you get a fully functional Windows environment. Access it via your browser or RDP.

And the best part? You don’t even have to install Windows yourself. The container handles the entire process—from fetching the image to finalizing the setup.

How Does It Work Technically?

If you look closely at the Docker command, you’ll notice the flag passing through /dev/kvm—Linux’s kernel-based virtualization mechanism. In short: This isn’t a "true" Windows container but rather a Linux container running a KVM-based VM. So, no magic here—just clever automation built on proven technology.

The catch? Hardware virtualization must be available and enabled—otherwise, nothing will work.

The Biggest Advantage: Convenience

What makes this special isn’t technical innovation but the massive gain in convenience. The most tedious aspects of a Windows installation—partitioning, initial setup, language, and keyboard selection—are completely automated.

Yet, you still get all the benefits of a "normal" KVM-based VM: USB and SATA passthrough, adjustable CPU cores and RAM allocation, and even optional PCIe passthrough (though that’s probably better suited for dedicated VMs).

Everyday Use: RDP Instead of VNC

The container’s web interface uses VNC, which is fine for quick access—but it’s slow and doesn’t support audio. RDP is the better option here. The container forwards the RDP port by default, allowing easy remote access from macOS, Linux, or even another Windows machine.

With shared folders, you can also mount directories from the host system, making file transfers between Windows and Linux seamless. The default container allocates 2 CPU cores, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage—all adjustable via environment variables.

Multiple Windows Versions? No Problem!

The container supports not just Windows 11 but older versions too—from XP to Server 2022. You can even use stripped-down variants like Tiny11 or Tiny10—or supply your own ISO. In one test, five Windows versions ran simultaneously: XP, Vista, 7, 10, and 11—all on an Intel N100 system drawing just 18W.

(Windows 8.1 refused to cooperate—but who misses it anyway?)

What About Licensing?

The Windows images come either directly from Microsoft (for newer versions) or from open sources like Bob Pony. Fresh installations are unactivated but run without restrictions for 30 days. For longer use, you’ll need a valid license key. According to the developer, the project itself contains no proprietary code and relies entirely on open-source components.

Verdict: Simple, Practical, Brilliant

Whether you need to quickly test Windows software, tinker with legacy systems, or run specialized tools like BIOS editors—this Docker project offers a sleek, hassle-free solution without major compromises. Of course, it’s no replacement for a high-performance VM with a dedicated GPU, but that’s not the goal.

What remains is an impressive example of what’s possible today with a bit of creativity and open standards—no installation headaches required.

And who knows? Maybe Windows XP will save your day yet again.

The post Windows in einem Docker-Container? Ja, wirklich! appeared first on Rhein-Ruhr-Informatik.

Overview

Prior to commencing the expansion process, it is imperative to comprehend that extending a virtual disk within the Hyper-V environment entails augmenting its allocated capacity. This action does not inherently result in the automatic population of the supplementary space with data. To effectively utilize the additional storage, it is necessary to manually extend the virtual machine's partitions and file systems, thereby enabling them to occupy the newly allocated space.

Before we dive into the steps, let's clarify why we might want to expand a Hyper-V VM's hard disk. This action is typically necessary when the virtual machine's existing storage capacity is insufficient to accommodate growing data or applications.

Access Hyper-V Manager

Windows 10/11: Search for "Hyper-V Manager" in the Start menu and open it.

First we need to shutdown the server:

On the virtual computer we click on the settings to configure the disk:

Under the Hardware menu we select the storage and on the right hand side we click on the Edit button to be able to continue this the next steps.

On the left hand side screen we select the Action, select Expand and then Continue:

As we see in the picture below under the Configure Data in the right-hand side there are 50GB. Here we can increase the size of the storage.

It is increased to 60GB as shown in the picture below:

After clickin OK, we have this picture in which we click again OK.

I have started the virtual machine:

After this steps in Hyper-V Manager, we start the virtual machine and going to extend LVM.

Via Putty tool we have to access our virtual machine:

Start by checking your root filesystem free space with df -hT. Our root disc is 62%. Now we gonna follow the steps to allocate 10 more GB to increase the percentage of our filesystem.

We enter the following commands parted -l adm type Fix to display the list of disks and partitions:

In the picture below we see that there is an error named: GPT PMBR size mismatchFirst we can fix it by typing the command correctin the error.

Now everything sims to be fine.

Now we can continue to extend our logical volume on /dev/sda3 filesystem as shown below:

First we use the command fdisk /dev/sda and continue with the other command showing below.

Now it is required to reboot the system

To check for existing free space on your Volume Group (where it is left by the installer default settings), run the command vgdisplay and lvdisplay check for free space.

After the computer has been restarted, we can use the command
lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv
to extend the partition.

At this point you have increased the size of the block volume where your root filesystem resides, but you still need to extend the filesystem on top of it. First, run lsblk aus:

To verify our root file system, then run
resize2fs /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv
to extend our filesystem:

Now as we see our LVM's size has increased to 48GB.

Conclusion

Overall, this guide provides a step-by-step process for expanding a Hyper-V VM's disk, addressing common challenges and ensuring optimal storage utilization

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