# Running a full desktop in a container

**URL:** <https://forums.balena.io/t/running-a-full-desktop-in-a-container/340509>\
**Category:** Discussions\
**Created:** [July 23, 2021, 12:06am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/running-a-full-desktop-in-a-container/340509 "2021-07-23T00:06:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![andrewnhem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/balena/user_avatar/forums.balena.io/andrewnhem/32/4284_2.png) [@andrewnhem](https://forums.balena.io/u/andrewnhem)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 12:06am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/running-a-full-desktop-in-a-container/340509/1 "2021-07-23T00:06:06Z")

</div>

Please use the thread below to discuss the related blog post:

> **[Running a full desktop in a container](https://www.balena.io/blog/running-a-desktop-manager-with-balena/)**
>
> While building your next Internet-of-things (IoT) project, sometimes you get to a point where you need to run applications that are made to run on a screen, we call them graphical user interface (GUI) applications. After multiple requests from our...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dreammtn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dreammtn](https://forums.balena.io/u/dreammtn)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2023, 4:34am UTC](https://forums.balena.io/t/running-a-full-desktop-in-a-container/340509/2 "2023-01-18T04:34:13Z")

</div>

I have a project that might require a full desktop for a user interface. I read through the post and looked at the github. however, I didn’t see any volumes declared. If we need the user to be able to keep extra files on the machine, will this project automatically keep user files between boot cycles or would we need to declare custom volumes?