Windows build agent: a self-hosted runner on a dedicated machine
A Windows machine kept for your builds alone: you install the agent, the SDK and the Build Tools, we deliver the system in 10 minutes.
Starting at €13/mo
Introduction
A self-hosted Windows runner starts with a machine of your own. At By-Hoster that means a dedicated Windows VPS, delivered in 10 minutes with full administrator access and a dedicated IPv4 address. You install whatever your pipeline needs on it — the GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps agent, the SDK, the Build Tools — then register it with your organisation. The machine does that one job, and it shares it with nobody.
What a Linux runner will never do fits in a short, stubborn list: compiling .NET Framework, building a WPF or WinForms interface, running MSBuild and MSTest against a Visual Studio solution, signing a binary with signtool, producing an MSI installer. Those steps want Windows, its APIs and its tooling. A Linux container rarely works around them without rewriting part of the project.
We recommend Windows - Plus at €13/month incl. VAT as a minimum: 8 vCores, 16 GB of RAM, 200 GB of SSD and 500 Mbps. A build reads and writes constantly — package restore, intermediate files, artefacts — which is why NVMe storage is included across the range. Said plainly: nothing is preinstalled beyond the operating system. No agent, no SDK, no pipeline. The Microsoft licence is also on you.
What the machine brings, and what it does not
8 vCores and 16 GB on the Plus plan
Windows - Plus at €13/month: 8 vCores, 16 GB of RAM, 200 GB of SSD, 500 Mbps. That is our starting recommendation for a build agent, because a compile uses every core it is given and a full toolchain, with a test runner behind it, fills 8 GB quickly. Above it, Windows - Max (16 vCores, 32 GB) and Windows - Titan (24 vCores, 64 GB) leave room for several jobs in parallel.
NVMe, because compiling means writing
Package restore, intermediate folders, output artefacts: a build spends its time creating and deleting thousands of small files. It is an I/O job as much as a CPU one. <strong>NVMe storage</strong> is included on all four configurations, with no option and no surcharge. We publish no throughput figure and no build time: nobody has measured them here, and we would rather invent nothing.
Bare system: no agent preinstalled
By-Hoster delivers Windows and administrator access, nothing else. The GitHub Actions runner, the Azure DevOps agent, the SDK, the Visual Studio Build Tools, the signing kit, your package manager: you install them, over RDP or in PowerShell, and you register the agent with your organisation using your own token. No pipeline supplied, no prepared image, no panel dictating versions.
Dedicated machine, persistent cache
The disk survives between runs: restored packages, an already cloned repository, tools already installed. Nothing to download again at the start of each job, unlike an ephemeral agent rebuilt from scratch. No queue shared with other customers and no minute quota to watch: you pay for a server by the month, not for compute minutes. Snapshots and reinstallation stay available from the client area.
What actually gets compiled on a Windows agent
.NET Framework solutions
A .NET Framework 4.8 application only compiles on Windows. MSBuild, the targets installed by the Build Tools and the project's COM dependencies need the operating system, not a compatibility layer.
WPF and WinForms interfaces
Windows GUI projects need the matching assemblies and generators. A Linux runner stops at the first WPF target; a Windows machine carries the build through exactly like your development workstation.
MSBuild and MSTest on the whole solution
Compilation and tests in one place, in the same environment as production. The Windows Task Scheduler can also fire a nightly build without any remote pipeline being involved at all.
Signing binaries, packaging an MSI
Signing with signtool and building an MSI installer: two steps that live on Windows. The signing certificate and its protection remain yours — we neither supply nor store any certificate.
A GitHub Actions runner of your own
You download the agent, register it against your repository or organisation with your token, and run it as a Windows service. It starts with the machine, and we bill you no execution minutes.
A self-hosted Azure DevOps agent
Same principle on the Azure DevOps side: a self-hosted pool, the agent installed as a service, and the machine capabilities declared to your organisation. Pipeline configuration stays entirely on your side.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. You get a complete Windows machine with administrator access: you download the agent there, register it against your repository or organisation with your own token, and run it as a Windows service so it restarts with the machine. To be blunt: By-Hoster supplies neither the agent, nor the pipeline, nor the token. We stand behind the server, its operating system and its network. Complying with your CI platform's own rules is your responsibility.
Four configurations, monthly prices incl. VAT: Core at €8 (4 vCores, 8 GB, 50 GB SSD), Plus at €13 (8 vCores, 16 GB, 200 GB), Max at €26 (16 vCores, 32 GB, 500 GB) and Titan at €49.99 (24 vCores, 64 GB, 800 GB, 1000 Mbps). Annual billing takes 10% off. That price covers the machine, the network and the support; it includes neither the Microsoft licence, nor your development tools, nor SQL Server. No commitment, 48-hour money-back guarantee.
We recommend at least Windows - Plus at €13/month: 8 vCores, 16 GB of RAM, 200 GB of SSD. Our published rule of thumb is 4 GB for light use and 8 GB as soon as business software or several users are added; a build agent leaves that frame quickly, because a compile takes every available core and a test runner queues up behind it. For several concurrent jobs, aim at Max (16 vCores, 32 GB) or Titan (24 vCores, 64 GB).
None of them. By-Hoster delivers a bare system: Windows, full administrator access, and nothing more. The runner or agent, the SDK, the Visual Studio Build Tools, the workloads, your package manager and your signing tools are installed by you, in an RDP session or in PowerShell. No pipeline is provided and no image is prepared. In exchange, you pick every version and nothing updates itself behind your back.
We publish no build times and no benchmarks: nobody has measured them here, and a made-up figure would help you not at all. What we can describe are the structural differences: the machine is dedicated, so there is no shared queue; its disk persists between runs, so packages and repository stay in place; the storage is NVMe. The real gain depends on your project — measure it on your own.
We impose no job limit and no minute quota: you rent a server by the month, not compute time. The real limit is hardware — the 8 vCores and 16 GB of the Plus plan, or the 24 vCores and 64 GB of Titan. On the human side, Windows Server allows 2 concurrent administrative RDP sessions; beyond that Microsoft requires RDS CAL licences that we do not supply. An agent running as a service needs no open session at all.
Yes for Windows: the Microsoft licence remains yours to hold. By-Hoster installs the system but neither supplies nor resells licences, and you must own a valid one for your use. The same principle applies to whatever you put on the machine: the licences of the software you install stay yours. If your build chain uses a database, SQL Server also needs its own licence — Express is free within its limits, Standard and Enterprise are paid.
The route is direct: order the server, delivered in 10 minutes with its dedicated IPv4, connect over RDP and reinstall the same toolchain as on the old machine. Then register the agent with your organisation and let both runners coexist while you compare results. Trigger a snapshot from the client area once the environment is in shape: you will find that starting point again after any failed experiment.
Three systems are offered at checkout, at no extra cost: Windows Server 2025 (mainstream support until 13 November 2029, security until 14 November 2034), Windows Server 2022 (mainstream until 13 October 2026, security until 14 October 2031) and Windows 11, a client operating system not designed to host a multi-user service. The server runs in our single DC-FR_NA(01) datacenter in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, on KVM with Proxmox, under French jurisdiction and with no transfer outside the European Union.
Let us be clear: only snapshots are included, triggered by you from the client area. There is no automatic off-site backup of the machine at By-Hoster. For a build agent that is rarely dramatic — sources live in your version control and artefacts in your package registry — but a signing certificate or a local configuration deserves a copy kept off the server. A fallback VNC console and self-service reinstallation remain available.