Visual Studio Build Tools Cannot Work in HyperV Isolation Mode

[chen-wu]

Describe the bug

Some applications (rc.exe in C++ workload, it is a part of Windows Kit) in Visual Studio Build Tools 2022 cannot start in Hyper-V isolation mode. However, the same image could work in Process isolation mode.

Which .NET image(s) are you using?

dotnet/framework/runtime:4.8-windowsservercore-ltsc2022

Steps to reproduce

Follow the official instruction to install Build Tools with C++ workload.

The Dockerfile is like:

# escape=`

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/runtime:4.8-windowsservercore-ltsc2022

# Restore the default Windows shell for correct batch processing.
SHELL ["cmd", "/S", "/C"]

# use command $env:DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 to enable mount function
RUN --mount=type=bind,from=vs-layout,target=C:\vslayout `
    certutil.exe -f -addstore "Root" "C:\vslayout\certificates\manifestRootCertificate.cer" `
    && certutil.exe -f -addstore "Root" "C:\vslayout\certificates\manifestCounterSignRootCertificate.cer" `
    && certutil.exe -f -addstore "Root" "C:\vslayout\certificates\vs_installer_opc.RootCertificate.cer" `
    && certutil.exe -f -addstore "Root" "C:\vslayout\certificates\Microsoft Windows Code Signing PCA 2024.crt" `
    # Install Build Tools with the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.AzureBuildTools workload, excluding workloads and components with known issues.
    && C:\vslayout\vs_buildtools.exe --quiet --wait --norestart --nocache --noweb `
    --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VCTools `
    --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATLMFC `
    --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.CLI.Support `
    --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.VC.ATL `
    --includeRecommended `
    || IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="3010" (EXIT 0) ELSE (type "%TEMP%\dd_setup_*.log" & EXIT %ERRORLEVEL%)

# Define the entry point for the Docker container.
# This entry point starts the developer command prompt and launches the PowerShell shell.
ENTRYPOINT ["C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2022\\BuildTools\\Common7\\Tools\\LaunchDevCmd.bat", "-arch=amd64", "&&", "powershell.exe", "-NoLogo", "-ExecutionPolicy", "Bypass"]

Run the image as container.

The x64 rc.exe cannot start, however, the x86 version works.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.26100.0>x64\rc.exe /?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.26100.0>x86\rc.exe /?

Microsoft (R) Windows (R) Resource Compiler Version 10.0.10011.16384
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Usage:  rc [options] .RC input file
Switches:
   /r       Emit .RES file (optional)
   /v       Verbose (print progress messages)
   /d       Define a symbol
   /u       Undefine a symbol
   /fo      Rename .RES file
   /l       Specify default language using language identifier
   /ln      Specify default language using language name
   /i       Add a path for INCLUDE searches
   /x       Ignore INCLUDE environment variable
   /c       Define a code page used by NLS conversion
   /w       Warn on Invalid codepage in .rc (default is an error)
   /y       Don't warn if there are duplicate control ID's
   /n       Append null's to all strings in the string tables
   /fm      Localizable resource only dll file name
   /q       RC Configuration file for the resource only DLL
   /g       Specify the ultimate fallback language using language identifier
   /gn      Specify the ultimate fallback language using language name
   /g1      Specify if version only MUI file can be created
   /g2      Specify the custom file version for checksum in MUI creation
   /nologo  Suppress startup logo
   /sl      Specify the resource string length limit in percentage
   /8       Enable UTF-8-only mode

I also tried to rebuild the base image with full server instead of the server core with this dockerfile and change the base to windows/server:ltsc2022-amd64. The result is the same.

The Windows Error Log in the container said:

PS C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.26100.0> (Get-EventLog application -Index 645).message
Faulting application name: rc.exe, version: 10.0.26100.7705, time stamp: 0x8af15307
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00007ffb4c5cb0c0
Faulting process id: 0x7b4
Faulting application start time: 0x01dcb20d2b400c36
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\10.0.26100.0\x64\rc.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 4d15441b-8e31-4a21-bbe0-d8f0fe82f039
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

I am using Buildkit 0.28.0 and Containerd 2.2.1, Docker Desktop for Windows 29.2.1 to run these images. Windows is:
Kernel Version: 10.0 26200 (26100.1.amd64fre.ge_release.240331-1435)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Version 25H2 (OS Build 26200.7840)

Other information

No response

Output of docker version

Client:
 Version:           29.2.1
 API version:       1.53
 Go version:        go1.25.6
 Git commit:        a5c7197
 Built:             Mon Feb  2 17:20:16 2026
 OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
 Context:           desktop-windows

Server: Docker Desktop 4.63.0 (220185)
 Engine:
  Version:          29.2.1
  API version:      1.53 (minimum version 1.44)
  Go version:       go1.25.6
  Git commit:       6bc6209b
  Built:            Mon Feb  2 17:17:12 2026
  OS/Arch:          windows/amd64
  Experimental:     true

Output of docker info