There are stories so wild, so gleefully absurd, that they demand to be retold—preferably over a pint with fellow geeks, as laughter and incredulity ricochet across the table. Running Windows 11 inside a Docker container on a Raspberry Pi may be less a tale from the bleeding edge of technology, and more an untamable fever dream of the tinkerer’s soul. But as any Raspberry Pi aficionado will wistfully admit: sometimes, the most questionable projects leave the sweetest stories (and the biggest messes) in their wake.
First, let's set the scene. The Raspberry Pi, a plucky little single-board computer conceived in the hopes of teaching children to code, has graduated from educational toy to tech world darling. With every new model, performance, RAM, and connectivity have scaled upward. USB-3.0 ports? Check. Gigabit Ethernet? Dual 4K HDMI on a device you can fit in your pocket? Sure. The Pi 5, for instance—our protagonist—boasts an 8GB memory option and a powerful quad-core processor. Suddenly, it isn’t just a hobbyist’s best friend; it’s a credible machine for home labs, media servers, and, apparently, the world’s most unnecessarily convoluted Windows workstation.
Yet, for all the Pi’s strides, the holy grail—a stress-free, bare-metal Windows install—has remained elusive, especially for those stuck with ARM processors. Mainstream Windows releases simply don’t target these chips, and Microsoft, ever cautious, seems in no rush to help you run their flagship OS on a $60 credit card. For years, the Pi has been a fortress defended by penguins, not windows.
But we tinkerers are a stubborn breed.
The outcome? Often a system that boots…eventually, but with the stability of a three-legged llama and the whimpering underperformance only a heroic but misaligned operating system can offer. WiFi and Bluetooth are hit-or-miss. Basic services spill over dead. Even if you miraculously land on the Windows desktop, half the fun is trying to keep it there.
But what if you could sidestep this hopeless slog? What if a container—yes, an honest-to-goodness Docker-style virtualized system—could do for Windows what the British did for tea: make it portable, sort of palatable, and universally deployable?
This is, frankly, a revelation. Earlier options for self-hosting on the Raspberry Pi—frequent names like YunoHost, Freedombox, or UmbrelOS—often demanded a dedicated OS install, effectively banishing your board to a single use-case. Runtipi, by contrast, weighs in lighter and lets you stack containers without remorse.
Where things get wild is in the app store. Flick through the available containers, and instead of the obligatory media servers and note-taking suites, you stumble on something so brazen it feels like a glitch: a Windows 11 container, powered by KVM, arm-in-arm with Docker’s orchestration magic.
You know how this ends: you click install before your rational mind can mount a defense.
Resource allocation becomes a fine art. Assign too little, and your Windows 11 container slinks along like molasses in January. Ask too much, and you risk crashing the underlying OS, setting your workspace ablaze with kernel panics.
The compromise here: four CPU cores, 4GB RAM, and about 32GB of storage for Windows. Networking is a breeze—just expose port 8006, and you can access your virtual Windows via a remote PC's browser. A few clicks in the Runtipi web UI, and you’ve unleashed the beast.
Installation, of course, is an exercise in patience. Windows, even on x86 hardware, is not famous for its svelte image size or brisk install time. On a Pi, expect about 23 minutes for the download to trickle in, and another 20 for setup to plod through its rites. Then, suddenly, there it is: the familiar shimmer of the Windows 11 desktop, albeit with a few… compromises.
Which version of Windows 11 are we running? The latest ARM64 build—official, unmodded, but still as experimental on the Pi as an ice cream parlor in Antarctica.
Surprisingly, the system is… not a total dumpster fire. The UI’s not snappy, but it isn’t glacial either. App launches carry a certain ceremony: you click, you wait, you maybe make a cup of coffee. And if you’re expecting to multitask at 4K, well, that’s a dream for the next decade’s Pi.
Next up: Darktable, the powerful open-source photo editor. On bare-metal x86 hardware, this is a heavyweight app. Here, it’s… okay, if you treat each action as a meditative exercise. Launching Darktable takes a couple of minutes, and while you can edit images, doing so at 800x600 is a bit like painting the Sistine Chapel through a keyhole.
Other basics—Notion, LibreOffice—perform admirably. These aren’t resource hogs, and their interface quirks are less annoying at low resolutions.
Benchmarks? Of course. Geekbench 6 reveals a truth that’s both sobering and remarkable: single-core performance inside the container is neck-and-neck with Raspberry Pi OS native results. Multi-core drops off—a reminder that virtualization and resource allotment have real-world consequences—but for light use, it’s honestly serviceable.
First, Steam, the granddaddy of PC gaming platforms, makes an appearance. It launches, but with a speed that makes cold molasses look like jet fuel. Install Genosia, a featherweight visual novel so forgiving it’ll run on almost anything with a functioning graphics pipeline. Even so, boot times are glacial, and in-game transitions lag. The old joke goes, “but can it run Crysis?”—at these specs, not unless you’re okay with 15 frames per second in a window you could hide under a sticky note.
Still, the fact that it works at all is testament to just how far both emulation and ARM architectures have come. The Pi, known for teaching Python and blinking LEDs, is now running complex Win32 applications and multitasking across platforms that are, fundamentally, not supposed to cooperate.
Install times are shorter than the bare-metal voyage. System crashes are fewer, since the Pi OS and containerization add layers of buffering. And if you need just a single Windows app Micrsoft refuses to port to Linux, this is, hands-down, the least masochistic method to get it working on ARM-based hardware.
Want to optimize? Ditch the GUI desktop and run a minimal CLI-focused distro like DietPi, flash it to a speedy SSD, and hook up a Pi with 16GB for breathing room. The performance jump is noticeable, and you won’t have to contend with swapping windows in a desktop environment designed for Tigers, not kittens.
Every Raspberry Pi owner knows the sentiment: “Because I can.” Each project, bizarre or brilliant, is another notch in the belt of creative chaos. Today it’s Windows in a container. Tomorrow, it could be Kubernetes clusters in shoeboxes, AI voice assistants running on solar panels, or triple-booting a Pi with four thumb drives and a prayer.
Above all, it’s proof positive that the Raspberry Pi’s journey from classroom curiosity to hacker icon is just hitting its stride. What hackers and tinkerers do with cheap, powerful, delightfully janky hardware is the real magic behind computing’s next chapter.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to see if I can boot Windows 95 inside a VM, inside Docker, inside Runtipi, on my Pi. Just because.
Source: XDA https://www.xda-developers.com/i-ran-windows-11-inside-a-docker-container-on-my-raspberry-pi/
The Raspberry Pi’s Bootstrapped Hardware Revolution
First, let's set the scene. The Raspberry Pi, a plucky little single-board computer conceived in the hopes of teaching children to code, has graduated from educational toy to tech world darling. With every new model, performance, RAM, and connectivity have scaled upward. USB-3.0 ports? Check. Gigabit Ethernet? Dual 4K HDMI on a device you can fit in your pocket? Sure. The Pi 5, for instance—our protagonist—boasts an 8GB memory option and a powerful quad-core processor. Suddenly, it isn’t just a hobbyist’s best friend; it’s a credible machine for home labs, media servers, and, apparently, the world’s most unnecessarily convoluted Windows workstation.Yet, for all the Pi’s strides, the holy grail—a stress-free, bare-metal Windows install—has remained elusive, especially for those stuck with ARM processors. Mainstream Windows releases simply don’t target these chips, and Microsoft, ever cautious, seems in no rush to help you run their flagship OS on a $60 credit card. For years, the Pi has been a fortress defended by penguins, not windows.
But we tinkerers are a stubborn breed.
The Allure—and Agony—of Unofficial Windows
If you’re nodding your head, it’s probably because you too have spent a weekend frantically swapping SD cards and debugging obscure boot parameters in search of running Windows on the Pi. Perhaps you too have navigated hacky bootloaders, experimental drivers, and half-broken guides from shadowy message boards. Maybe, just maybe, you’ve bathed in the cold sweat of a system crash with 89% of the Windows installation complete.The outcome? Often a system that boots…eventually, but with the stability of a three-legged llama and the whimpering underperformance only a heroic but misaligned operating system can offer. WiFi and Bluetooth are hit-or-miss. Basic services spill over dead. Even if you miraculously land on the Windows desktop, half the fun is trying to keep it there.
But what if you could sidestep this hopeless slog? What if a container—yes, an honest-to-goodness Docker-style virtualized system—could do for Windows what the British did for tea: make it portable, sort of palatable, and universally deployable?
Meet Runtipi: The Containerization Playground for Pi Addicts
Enter Runtipi, every Pi multitasker’s solution to a problem they weren’t sure existed. Runtipi is a containerization platform targeting the Raspberry Pi family, and it lets you run a smorgasbord of applications and services as containers atop whatever OS you prefer—without having to format your microSD or sacrifice another precious Pi to the gods of distro experimentation.This is, frankly, a revelation. Earlier options for self-hosting on the Raspberry Pi—frequent names like YunoHost, Freedombox, or UmbrelOS—often demanded a dedicated OS install, effectively banishing your board to a single use-case. Runtipi, by contrast, weighs in lighter and lets you stack containers without remorse.
Where things get wild is in the app store. Flick through the available containers, and instead of the obligatory media servers and note-taking suites, you stumble on something so brazen it feels like a glitch: a Windows 11 container, powered by KVM, arm-in-arm with Docker’s orchestration magic.
You know how this ends: you click install before your rational mind can mount a defense.
The Esoteric Ritual of Containerized Windows 11
Let’s talk specs, because every Pi adventure hinges on them. Our test hardware: a Raspberry Pi 5, 8GB RAM, quad-core CPU, running Raspberry Pi OS. That's not a supercomputer, but it isn’t a slouch either—unless you’re comparing it to… well, pretty much anything designed after 2015.Resource allocation becomes a fine art. Assign too little, and your Windows 11 container slinks along like molasses in January. Ask too much, and you risk crashing the underlying OS, setting your workspace ablaze with kernel panics.
The compromise here: four CPU cores, 4GB RAM, and about 32GB of storage for Windows. Networking is a breeze—just expose port 8006, and you can access your virtual Windows via a remote PC's browser. A few clicks in the Runtipi web UI, and you’ve unleashed the beast.
Installation, of course, is an exercise in patience. Windows, even on x86 hardware, is not famous for its svelte image size or brisk install time. On a Pi, expect about 23 minutes for the download to trickle in, and another 20 for setup to plod through its rites. Then, suddenly, there it is: the familiar shimmer of the Windows 11 desktop, albeit with a few… compromises.
It Works! Kinda. The Glass-Ceiling of Arm-based Windows
The first thing you’ll notice is that, like the world’s tiniest hobbit home, your Windows is, well, compact. Only an 800x600 resolution is on offer, a painful flashback to 1990s computer labs and educational games where UI elements fight for real estate. 4:3 aspect ratio, baby! And because drivers are whatever KVM is able to muster, you won’t be raising that ceiling any time soon.Which version of Windows 11 are we running? The latest ARM64 build—official, unmodded, but still as experimental on the Pi as an ice cream parlor in Antarctica.
Surprisingly, the system is… not a total dumpster fire. The UI’s not snappy, but it isn’t glacial either. App launches carry a certain ceremony: you click, you wait, you maybe make a cup of coffee. And if you’re expecting to multitask at 4K, well, that’s a dream for the next decade’s Pi.
Apps, Tests, and Tiny Triumphs: Brave, Powertoys, and More
With the environment set, it’s time for actual app testing, because what’s Windows for if not running real software? Brave Browser is up first—it loads, even handling ten tabs without choking, which is more than can be said for some office desktops. Powertoys behaves, which is a relief for anyone addicted to FancyZones or the gloriously petty Text Extractor.Next up: Darktable, the powerful open-source photo editor. On bare-metal x86 hardware, this is a heavyweight app. Here, it’s… okay, if you treat each action as a meditative exercise. Launching Darktable takes a couple of minutes, and while you can edit images, doing so at 800x600 is a bit like painting the Sistine Chapel through a keyhole.
Other basics—Notion, LibreOffice—perform admirably. These aren’t resource hogs, and their interface quirks are less annoying at low resolutions.
Benchmarks? Of course. Geekbench 6 reveals a truth that’s both sobering and remarkable: single-core performance inside the container is neck-and-neck with Raspberry Pi OS native results. Multi-core drops off—a reminder that virtualization and resource allotment have real-world consequences—but for light use, it’s honestly serviceable.
Can You Game? The Genosia Gambit
No Pi project is complete without pressing your luck, so the next logical step is attempting—against all better judgment—to run actual PC games.First, Steam, the granddaddy of PC gaming platforms, makes an appearance. It launches, but with a speed that makes cold molasses look like jet fuel. Install Genosia, a featherweight visual novel so forgiving it’ll run on almost anything with a functioning graphics pipeline. Even so, boot times are glacial, and in-game transitions lag. The old joke goes, “but can it run Crysis?”—at these specs, not unless you’re okay with 15 frames per second in a window you could hide under a sticky note.
Still, the fact that it works at all is testament to just how far both emulation and ARM architectures have come. The Pi, known for teaching Python and blinking LEDs, is now running complex Win32 applications and multitasking across platforms that are, fundamentally, not supposed to cooperate.
The Practicality Paradox: Should Anyone Do This?
Having spent way too much time on this project, you might expect a profound warning about wasted hours and shattered dreams. Yet, paradoxically, running Windows 11 inside a Runtipi container—at least for lightweight tasks—makes a strange kind of sense.Install times are shorter than the bare-metal voyage. System crashes are fewer, since the Pi OS and containerization add layers of buffering. And if you need just a single Windows app Micrsoft refuses to port to Linux, this is, hands-down, the least masochistic method to get it working on ARM-based hardware.
Want to optimize? Ditch the GUI desktop and run a minimal CLI-focused distro like DietPi, flash it to a speedy SSD, and hook up a Pi with 16GB for breathing room. The performance jump is noticeable, and you won’t have to contend with swapping windows in a desktop environment designed for Tigers, not kittens.
The Philosophy of Doing Weird Things With Tiny Computers
There’s a joy here that transcends mere benchmarks. Running Windows 11—Microsoft’s latest and greatest—inside a Docker container, atop Linux, on ARM silicon, in a package that fits in your hand is fundamentally unnecessary. And that’s what makes it wonderful.Every Raspberry Pi owner knows the sentiment: “Because I can.” Each project, bizarre or brilliant, is another notch in the belt of creative chaos. Today it’s Windows in a container. Tomorrow, it could be Kubernetes clusters in shoeboxes, AI voice assistants running on solar panels, or triple-booting a Pi with four thumb drives and a prayer.
Final Words: Not For the Faint of Heart, But Maybe For You
If you’re itching to take your Pi experimentation to the next level, running Windows 11 inside Runtipi is the perfect “hold my drink and watch this” moment. Maybe you need to test a program that clings to Windows like a barnacle. Maybe you just want to see if it’s possible. Either way, this is the ultimate Pi shenanigan—low stakes, high satisfaction, and a story guaranteed to raise eyebrows at any nerd gathering.Above all, it’s proof positive that the Raspberry Pi’s journey from classroom curiosity to hacker icon is just hitting its stride. What hackers and tinkerers do with cheap, powerful, delightfully janky hardware is the real magic behind computing’s next chapter.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to see if I can boot Windows 95 inside a VM, inside Docker, inside Runtipi, on my Pi. Just because.
Source: XDA https://www.xda-developers.com/i-ran-windows-11-inside-a-docker-container-on-my-raspberry-pi/
