Download an app, open it inside another app.
RunContainer is a Windows launcher with its own small desktop. Add a program, press Run, and it opens inside a RunContainer window with its own folder for saves and settings — instead of being installed across the rest of your PC.
If you know LiveContainer on iOS, this is the same idea for Windows. No account, no subscription, no virtual machine required, and the source is open.
Choose an edition from the downloads page or GitHub Releases:
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Stable (green): recommended for everyday use. New installers are named
RunContainer-Stable-Setup-<version>.exe; older releases useRunContainer-Setup-<version>.exe. -
Nightly (blue): early access to experimental features, including developer mode and Virtualise. Nightly may be buggy. Its installer is
RunContainer-Nightly-Setup-<version>.exe. -
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
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No administrator rights needed for RunContainer itself. Some apps and installers will still ask for permission, and that prompt comes from Windows.
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Starting with 0.9.3, Stable installers are self-signed; older Stable releases and Nightly installers are unsigned. Windows may warn in either case because self-signed certificates are not publicly trusted. Only run an installer you downloaded from the links above.
Already installed? When a new version in your channel is available, the app shows an Update… notice.
RunContainer Nightly is the blue early-access edition. Download its clearly labelled RunContainer-Nightly-Setup-<version>.exe from the pre-releases. It can be buggy. Nightly installs alongside stable with its own apps, settings and updates; it does not copy your existing app library automatically. New features reach Nightly first. Nightly installers are unsigned.
- Open RunContainer and press +.
- Pick an
.exe, or paste a download link in Sources. - Press Run.
RunContainer tries to show the app in a separate RunContainer window. Depending on your installer settings, setup runs in the background or its wizard is shown. Some apps, installers and Windows prompts cannot be embedded and may appear separately.
- Apps — your apps, each with its real icon. Run, close, duplicate, reset, delete.
- Sources — add an app from a URL.
- Tweaks — launch arguments, memory and CPU limits, and JIT settings for .NET apps.
- Profiles — how much access an app gets, from normal to locked (no network).
- Settings — installers, appearance, RC-Brain, and the beginner tour. Nightly also has developer mode.
- Manage — per app: where it lives, its log, and how its window is shown.
- Info — version, links and support.
- Updates — what changed and the update button.
The iPhone companion shows an app that is already running on the PC. Scan the QR code in Settings with the phone camera, then Share → Add to Home Screen; it opens like an app, with no port to type. With Tailscale signed in, Settings can open a real https://…ts.net address through Funnel, so it also works away from home. Apps keep running on the PC, and pairing is required.
Each app runs in its own managed environment: its own folder, its own saved data, its own process tree with optional memory and CPU limits. Pressing Duplicate makes a second copy with separate data. Delete removes the app and its folder.
On a PC that supports it, RunContainer can use a stronger boundary — a full virtual machine — when a prepared VM image already exists. Otherwise it uses the managed environment, and it refuses to launch an app it cannot contain rather than starting it unprotected.
One honest limit: this is containment, not a security sandbox driver. A well-behaved app keeps its files and settings inside its folder. An app that writes to shared Windows places like the registry can still leave traces outside it.
RunContainer includes a small AI model, RC-Brain 5, trained from scratch to watch apps while they run and help when one misbehaves. It looks at what the app is doing, spots common problems, and can restart an app or repair its folder. It asks before doing anything that could remove data, and it says when it does not know.
While RC-Brain is checking an app it can call on specialist helpers — a researcher, an expert and a harmony agent — plus a fixed runbook of known Windows errors. It never installs system software, weakens isolation, or follows instructions found in an app's logs.
You can read the full story on the documentation's RC-Brain page.
Settings has an iPhone companion. Turn it on and the PC shows an address and a six-digit code. Open the address in Safari on the iPhone, add it to the Home Screen, and pair it with the code.
The phone then shows an app that is already running on the PC and sends your taps, typing and scrolling to it. The app still runs on the PC: nothing is installed or run on the phone, and it cannot open .exe or .ipa files. It reaches the PC over your own network — the same Wi-Fi, or a private network such as Tailscale when you are away — so do not forward its port on your router. It is experimental, off by default, and shares one app window rather than your screen.
In Nightly, Enable developer mode adds the experimental Virtualise tab and RC-Brain technical details. You need your own QEMU installation and operating-system media. VM support can be buggy. Starting with Stable 0.9.1, these tools are available only in Nightly; Stable 0.9.0 still includes them. Existing Stable VM files are not deleted.
When a newer release in the same channel exists, the app shows the changes and an Update… button that downloads the installer, checks it, installs it over your copy, and restarts. Your apps and settings are kept. Remind tomorrow hides that version for a day.
If RunContainer is useful to you, the easiest way to help is to star the project on GitHub.
- Documentation and guides: https://runcontainer-7.github.io/9-runcontainer/
- Discord, for help and feature requests: https://discord.gg/UKTGRMMmC4
- YouTube, for walkthroughs and demos: https://m.youtube.com/@RunContainer
- Bugs and ideas: open an issue
For anyone who wants to build it themselves:
npm install
npm run build
npm startOn Windows you can also double-click run.bat. The version in package.json is the version the whole app uses; nightly releases are cut by pushing a matching tag such as v0.9.1-nightly.2; stable releases use a matching stable version and tag.
MIT.