Actually, the idea behind #Winboat is excellent, but the implementation currently seems a bit unstable. Since the installation at the start of the year, the system had been running, but today the software completely stopped working.

The image suddenly reported insufficient memory (RAM). I tried to fix the problem manually, which unfortunately rendered the system permanently unusable. Instead of investing more time in troubleshooting, I switched directly to the Dockurr Windows image – which forms the technical basis of Winboat anyway.

Error message

1. Preparation

Since I use Podman, I first created the necessary directories on my host system. This ensures data integrity if the container needs to be recreated:

mkdir -p $HOME/Windows/System
mkdir -p $HOME/Windows/Shared

2. The start command

Important note: Replace the placeholders in the -e USERNAME and -e PASSWORD variables with your personal login credentials.

podman run -d \
  --name windows \
  -p 8006:8006 \
  --device=/dev/kvm \
  --cap-add NET_ADMIN \
  -e RAM_SIZE="8G" \
  -e USERNAME="Carsten" \
  -e PASSWORD="1234" \
  -e LANGUAGE="German" \
  -v $HOME/Windows/System:/storage:Z \
  -v $HOME/Windows/Shared:/shared:Z \
  --stop-timeout 120 \
  dockurr/windows

Once the container is active, you can access the Windows instance directly via your browser:

http://127.0.0.1:8006

Running container

3. Summary

I only had to run the command above once. In daily operation, the Windows environment can now be conveniently controlled using these shortcuts:

  • Start: podman start windows
  • Stop: podman stop windows (or shut down directly within Windows)
  • Check status: podman ps -a

Further links:

Winboat Podman Container Windows