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---
stage: Verify
group: Runner
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/product/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
---
# Hosted runners on Windows
DETAILS:
**Tier:** Free, Premium, Ultimate
**Offering:** GitLab.com
**Status:** Beta
Hosted runners on Windows autoscale by launching virtual machines on
the Google Cloud Platform. This solution uses an
[autoscaling driver](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/custom-executor-drivers/autoscaler/-/blob/main/docs/README.md)
developed by GitLab for the [custom executor](https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/custom.html).
Hosted runners on Windows are in [beta](../../../policy/experiment-beta-support.md#beta).
We want to keep iterating to get Windows runners in a stable state and
[generally available](../../../policy/experiment-beta-support.md#generally-available-ga).
You can follow our work towards this goal in the
[related epic](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/2162).
## Machine types available for Windows
GitLab offers the following machine type for hosted runners on Windows.
| Runner Tag | vCPUs | Memory | Storage |
| --------------------------- | ----- | ------ | ------- |
| `saas-windows-medium-amd64` | 2 | 7.5 GB | 75 GB |
## Supported Windows versions
The Windows runner virtual machine instances do not use the GitLab Docker executor. This means that you can't specify
[`image`](../../../ci/yaml/index.md#image) or [`services`](../../../ci/yaml/index.md#services) in your pipeline configuration.
You can execute your job in one of the following Windows versions:
| Version | Status |
|--------------|---------------|
| Windows 2022 | `GA` |
You can find a full list of available pre-installed software in
the [pre-installed software documentation](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/shared-runners/images/gcp/windows-containers/-/blob/main/cookbooks/preinstalled-software/attributes/default.rb).
## Supported shell
Hosted runners on Windows have PowerShell configured as the shell.
The `script` section of your `.gitlab-ci.yml` file therefore requires PowerShell commands.
## Example `.gitlab-ci.yml` file
Below is a sample `.gitlab-ci.yml` file that shows how to start using the runners for Windows:
```yaml
.windows_job:
tags:
- saas-windows-medium-amd64
before_script:
- Set-Variable -Name "time" -Value (date -Format "%H:%m")
- echo ${time}
- echo "started by ${GITLAB_USER_NAME} / @${GITLAB_USER_LOGIN}"
build:
extends:
- .windows_job
stage: build
script:
- echo "running scripts in the build job"
test:
extends:
- .windows_job
stage: test
script:
- echo "running scripts in the test job"
```
## Known issues
- For more information about support for beta features, see [beta](../../../policy/experiment-beta-support.md#beta).
- The average provisioning time for a new Windows virtual machine (VM) is five minutes, so
you might notice slower start times for builds on the Windows runner
fleet during the beta. Updating the autoscaler to enable the pre-provisioning
of virtual machines is proposed in a future release. This update is intended to
significantly reduce the time it takes to provision a VM on the Windows fleet.
For more information, see [issue 32](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/ci-cd/custom-executor-drivers/autoscaler/-/issues/32).
- The Windows runner fleet may be unavailable occasionally
for maintenance or updates.
- The job may stay in a pending state for longer than the
Linux runners.
- There is the possibility that we introduce breaking changes which will
require updates to pipelines that are using the Windows runner
fleet.
|
