Windows CI that starts quickly
Windows runners
Windows Server 2022 and 2025 runners with Visual Studio Build Tools and a persistent NuGet cache.
Fast start
Warm pools remove most of the Windows boot penalty.
VS preinstalled
2022 and 2025 Build Tools with the common workloads already present.
NuGet cache
Package restore served locally instead of over the network.
Windows jobs are usually slow for environmental reasons rather than code reasons — boot time, Defender, and network-bound package restore. All three are addressable.
Common questions
- Why are Windows runners slow to start?
- Windows boots more slowly and Defender scans everything the checkout writes. Warm pools remove the boot cost; excluding the workspace from Defender removes most of the rest.
- Can I run Linux containers on a Windows runner?
- Only with nested virtualization, available on Windows Server 2025 images and supported sizes. Building Linux images on Linux runners is usually the better answer.
- Is Windows licensing included?
- Yes, in the per-minute price. There is no separate licence to procure.
Your next build could be twice as fast, at half the price
Start free. Migrating away is the same one line, and we publish that diff too.