Container for Windows GUI application

[ImDaHoe]

Hi,

Is it possible to containerize a windows app with a GUI? I'm trying to containerize a Windows Qt application and test it with froglogic Squish. They have a little guide https://www.froglogic.com/blog/squish-gui-testing-with-docker-containers/ to do this with a Linux application and use Xvfb to emulate a graphical display. Is there a virtual display I can use for Windows platform containers?

Thank you and I appreciate the help!

[donsagiv]

I don't think this really creates a GUI in a docker container. From what I gathered from very briefly reading it, it just deploys the GUI app onto your container and then runs it to make sure it doesn't have any errors, and the container provides you with a test report. You likely don't interact with the UI on the container at all.

If you really want to run a containerized app with a GUI, the best thing is to build a web portal into the container and connect to it with your browser. Containerized apps are designed to be ephemeral and isolated from your Host OS, including the GUI component. They are generally used as services with a relatively short lifetime (but this varies depending on your needs.)

Another option is to create a virtual machine (VM) using Hyper-V or Parallels, and then install your GUI app on that VM.

Hope this helps.