diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
index 82d42f62be..a6b4f592cf 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ jobs:
         eval $(go env | sed -r 's/^(set )?(\w+)=("?)(.*)\3$/\2="\4"/gm')
 
         if [[ "${{ matrix.platform }}" == "windows-latest" ]]; then
+          # Always use the nanoserver base image, which matches the Windows
+          # version used by the GitHub Actions Windows runner.
+          rm .ko.yaml
           export KO_DEFAULTBASEIMAGE=mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809
         fi
 
diff --git a/.ko.yaml b/.ko.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6371051bce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.ko.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+baseImageOverrides:
+  github.com/google/ko: golang:1.17
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 614fd074f0..e0e81227c5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -466,9 +466,11 @@ You can try out building a Windows container image by [setting the base image](#
 For example, to build a Windows container image for `ko`, from within this repo:
 
 ```
-KO_DEFAULTBASEIMAGE=mcr.microsoft.com/windows/nanoserver:1809 ko publish ./ --platform=windows/amd64
+ko publish ./ --platform=windows/amd64
 ```
 
+This works because the `ko` image is configured in [`.ko.yaml`](./.ko.yaml) to be based on a `golang` base image, which provides platform-specific images for both Linux and Windows.
+
 ### Known issues 🐛
 
 - Symlinks in `kodata` are ignored when building Windows images; only regular files and directories will be included in the Windows image.