Windowskontit

Windowskontit (Windows containers) are a form of containerization for Windows that enable running Windows applications in isolated user spaces on a Windows host. They come in two main isolation models: Windows Server kontit, which share the host operating system kernel, and Hyper-V kontit, which use a lightweight virtual machine to provide kernel isolation.

Windowskontit rely on Windows base images such as Windows Server Core and Windows Nano Server, and are driven by container runtimes such as Docker Engine. They are supported on Windows Server 2016 and later, as well as on Windows 10/11 with Docker Desktop. Orchestration and management are provided through tools like Kubernetes and Docker Compose, with images published to standard container registries.

Early Windows deployments could run Linux containers using LCOW (Linux Containers on Windows), but modern workflows favor Windows-only images or rely on Linux support via integration with WSL2. In practice this means Windowskontit primarily run Windows applications and require matching host and image Windows versions for compatibility.

Common use cases include packaging legacy Windows applications for consistent deployment, running Windows-based microservices, and enabling CI/CD pipelines on Windows stacks. Security and deployment considerations include the choice between kernel-sharing Windows Server kontit and Hyper-V kontit, licensing terms for Windows images, and strategies for patching and updating containers and hosts.