@@ -56,6 +56,16 @@ func (daemon *Daemon) createSpec(c *container.Container) (*libcontainerd.Spec, e

 		s.Process.Args = escapeArgs(s.Process.Args)

 	}

 	s.Process.Cwd = c.Config.WorkingDir

+	if len(s.Process.Cwd) == 0 {

+		// We default to C:\ to workaround the oddity of the case that the

+		// default directory for cmd running as LocalSystem (or

+		// ContainerAdministrator) is c:\windows\system32. Hence docker run

+		// <image> cmd will by default end in c:\windows\system32, rather

+		// than 'root' (/) on Linux. The oddity is that if you have a dockerfile

+		// which has no WORKDIR and has a COPY file ., . will be interpreted

+		// as c:\. Hence, setting it to default of c:\ makes for consistency.

+		s.Process.Cwd = `C:\`

+	}

 	s.Process.Env = c.CreateDaemonEnvironment(linkedEnv)

 	s.Process.InitialConsoleSize = c.HostConfig.ConsoleSize

 	s.Process.Terminal = c.Config.Tty

@@ -2074,8 +2074,18 @@ func (s *DockerSuite) TestBuildRelativeWorkdir(c *check.C) {

 		expected4     string

 		expectedFinal string

 	)

+	// TODO Windows: The expectedFinal needs fixing to match Windows

+	// filepath semantics. However, this is a non-trivial change. @jhowardmsft

+	// Short story - need to make the configuration file platform semantically

+	// consistent, so even if `WORKDIR /test2/test3` is specified in a Dockerfile,

+	// the configuration should be stored as C:\test2\test3. Something similar to

+	// 	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" && len(workdir) > 2 && string(workdir[0]) == `\` {

+	//		workdir = "C:" + workdir

+	//  }

+	// in builder\dockerfile\dispatchers.go, function workdir(), but also

+	// ironing out all other cases where this causes other failures.

 	if daemonPlatform == "windows" {

-		expected1 = `C:/Windows/system32`

+		expected1 = `C:/`

 		expected2 = `C:/test1`

 		expected3 = `C:/test2`

 		expected4 = `C:/test2/test3`

@@ -2090,13 +2100,13 @@ func (s *DockerSuite) TestBuildRelativeWorkdir(c *check.C) {

 	_, err := buildImage(name,

 		`FROM busybox

-		RUN sh -c "[ "$PWD" = '`+expected1+`' ]"

+		RUN sh -c "[ "$PWD" = "`+expected1+`" ]"

 		WORKDIR test1

-		RUN sh -c "[ "$PWD" = '`+expected2+`' ]"

+		RUN sh -c "[ "$PWD" = "`+expected2+`" ]"

 		WORKDIR /test2

-		RUN sh -c "[ "$PWD" = '`+expected3+`' ]"

+		RUN sh -c "[ "$PWD" = "`+expected3+`" ]"

 		WORKDIR test3

-		RUN sh -c "[ "$PWD" = '`+expected4+`' ]"`,

+		RUN sh -c "[ "$PWD" = "`+expected4+`" ]"`,

 		true)

 	if err != nil {

 		c.Fatal(err)