Windows containers cannot use USER instruction to change user with a password

 I have a Dockerfile like below:

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:20H2 as final
RUN net user timus P@$$w0rd123!@# /add /Passwordchg:No
RUN WMIC USERACCOUNT WHERE "Name='timus'" SET PasswordExpires=FALSE
RUN net localgroup administrators timus /add
USER timus
RUN whoami

Running this will fail with an error message like below:

C:\mydocker>docker build -t myimages:1.0.0 -f Dockerfile Sending build context to Docker daemon 678.8MB Step 1/6 : FROM mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore:20H2 as final ---> 4943ff812624 Step 2/6 : RUN net user timus P@$$w0rd!@# /add /Passwordchg:No ---> Running in 95d4d70138d8 The command completed successfully. Removing intermediate container 95d4d70138d8 ---> d00130167ea2 Step 3/6 : RUN WMIC USERACCOUNT WHERE "Name='timus'" SET PasswordExpires=FALSE ---> Running in 0d05945d8f70 Updating property(s) of '\\0D05945D8F70\ROOT\CIMV2:Win32_UserAccount.Domain="0D05945D8F70",Name="timus"' Property(s) update successful. Removing intermediate container 0d05945d8f70 ---> b37beaf1f201 Step 4/6 : RUN net localgroup administrators timus /add ---> Running in 82871efe73b3 The command completed successfully. Removing intermediate container 82871efe73b3 ---> 17d3a473c8e6 Step 5/6 : USER timus ---> Running in fc69793db808 Removing intermediate container fc69793db808 ---> 8e515f363d94 Step 6/6 : RUN whoami ---> Running in 1d88d8a9e089 container 1d88d8a9e0897835a2cd00082f92ef99d7896623ce7ba7c1921176569c670cfe encountered an error during hcsshim::System::CreateProcess: failure in a Windows system call: The user name or password is incorrect. (0x52e) [Event Detail: Provider: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000] [Event Detail: Provider: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000] [Event Detail: onecore\vm\compute\management\orchestration\vmhostedcontainer\processmanagement.cpp(173)\vmcomputeagent.exe!00007FF720E4A40B: (caller: 00007FF720E05C8B) Exception(2) tid(388) 8007052E The user name or password is incorrect. CallContext:[\Bridge_ProcessMessage\VmHostedContainer_ExecuteProcess] Provider: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000] extra info: {"CommandLine":"cmd /S /C whoami","User":"timus","WorkingDirectory":"C:\\","CreateStdInPipe":true,"CreateStdOutPipe":true,"CreateStdErrPipe":true,"ConsoleSize":[0,0]}

This is failing because as of this writing (4/12/2021) Windows containers does not support using USER instruction for users with password, it is expecting it to be blank!
See this GitHub issue for details - https://github.com/moby/moby/issues/28585