Cached Windows images have no tools installed?

[btgoodwin]

Description

I'm trying to debug a github action by running the related runner manually, locally, and then sorting out the tools, commands, etc. that I need to make the runner actually perform the work we need without the current process of committing a few lines at a time and pushing that, waiting for a log, run up my GHA bill, etc. According to this site, it seems to be saying that those are cached images that contain all of the tools and so forth that are listed above that section in the document. And yet when I do this:

docker run -it mcr.microsoft.com/windows/server/ltsc2022

I find there are essentially none of the listed tools installed and no associated documentation anywhere that I can find for how to get the tools installed.

Are there runner images somewhere in the container registry, accessible to the public, that are identical to what one gets when setting up a workflow that runs on windows-2022, for example, so that trying to debug workflows can be performed locally?

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 20.04
• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Image version and build link

1. Use Docker Desktop set to use Windows Containers
2. Pull one of the images from the linked documentation, like mcr.microsoft.com/windows/server:ltsc2022.
3. My currently-pulled image ID for (2) is 16f97fcf4440, which is from 5 weeks ago.

Is it regression?

No

Expected behavior

The document linked in the description describes all sorts of tools available in the windows runner, and indeed when run in a workflow against for example windows-2022, those tools are available. However later in the linked document, it lists a set of cached images as if those images represent the output of the above document, but instead those images are bare. It would be far more helpful if the cached images represented the supposed contents above the table.

Actual behavior

All of the images are lacking in any basic tools, packages, etc.

Repro steps

1. Pick an image from the cache table in the description -provided link. For example, docker run -it mcr.microsoft.com/windows/server/ltsc2022.
2. Search the resulting Program Files, Program Files (x86), etc. for any of the tools that are listed in the description -provided link.
3. Find none of the tools available.

[Prabhatkumar59]

Hi @btgoodwin - Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We will look into this issue and will update you after investigating.