diff --git a/cluster/gce/config-default.sh b/cluster/gce/config-default.sh
index c38d924529b..0c84b099340 100755
--- a/cluster/gce/config-default.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/config-default.sh
@@ -556,3 +556,9 @@ export ETCD_PROGRESS_NOTIFY_INTERVAL="${ETCD_PROGRESS_NOTIFY_INTERVAL:-10m}"
 
 # Use host IP instead of localhost in control plane kubeconfig files.
 export KUBECONFIG_USE_HOST_IP="${KUBECONFIG_USE_HOST_IP:-false}"
+
+# Optional: Install Pigz on Windows.
+# Pigz is a multi-core optimized version of unzip.exe.
+# It improves container image pull performance since most time is spent
+# unzipping the image layers to disk.
+export WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ="${WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ:-true}"
diff --git a/cluster/gce/config-test.sh b/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
index b70775b5be5..89f3d187a5d 100755
--- a/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
@@ -592,3 +592,9 @@ export ETCD_PROGRESS_NOTIFY_INTERVAL="${ETCD_PROGRESS_NOTIFY_INTERVAL:-10m}"
 
 # Use host IP instead of localhost in control plane kubeconfig files.
 export KUBECONFIG_USE_HOST_IP="${KUBECONFIG_USE_HOST_IP:-false}"
+
+# Optional: Install Pigz on Windows.
+# Pigz is a multi-core optimized version of unzip.exe.
+# It improves container image pull performance since most time is spent
+# unzipping the image layers to disk.
+export WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ="${WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ:-true}"
diff --git a/cluster/gce/util.sh b/cluster/gce/util.sh
index aedae8fed6a..e70a17a208f 100755
--- a/cluster/gce/util.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/util.sh
@@ -1565,6 +1565,7 @@ KUBECONFIG_FILE: $(yaml-quote "${WINDOWS_KUBECONFIG_FILE}")
 BOOTSTRAP_KUBECONFIG_FILE: $(yaml-quote "${WINDOWS_BOOTSTRAP_KUBECONFIG_FILE}")
 KUBEPROXY_KUBECONFIG_FILE: $(yaml-quote "${WINDOWS_KUBEPROXY_KUBECONFIG_FILE}")
 WINDOWS_INFRA_CONTAINER: $(yaml-quote "${WINDOWS_INFRA_CONTAINER}")
+WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ: $(yaml-quote "${WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ}")
 EOF
 }
 
diff --git a/cluster/gce/windows/common.psm1 b/cluster/gce/windows/common.psm1
index 4a292077e86..03b68c23fd7 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/windows/common.psm1
+++ b/cluster/gce/windows/common.psm1
@@ -640,5 +640,25 @@ function Test-NodeUsesAuthPlugin {
   return $KubeEnv.Contains('EXEC_AUTH_PLUGIN_URL')
 }
 
+# Permanently adds a directory to the $env:PATH environment variable.
+function Add-MachineEnvironmentPath {
+  param (
+    [parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string]$Path
+  )
+  # Verify that the $Path is not already in the $env:Path variable.
+  $pathForCompare = $Path.TrimEnd('\').ToLower()
+  foreach ($p in $env:Path.Split(";")) {
+    if ($p.TrimEnd('\').ToLower() -eq $pathForCompare) {
+        return
+    }
+  }
+
+  $newMachinePath = $Path + ";" + `
+    [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path","Machine")
+  [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", $newMachinePath, `
+    [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine)
+  $env:Path = $Path + ";" + $env:Path
+}
+
 # Export all public functions:
 Export-ModuleMember -Function *-*
diff --git a/cluster/gce/windows/k8s-node-setup.psm1 b/cluster/gce/windows/k8s-node-setup.psm1
index 1ed9d0c3a06..c92056e5b6e 100644
--- a/cluster/gce/windows/k8s-node-setup.psm1
+++ b/cluster/gce/windows/k8s-node-setup.psm1
@@ -273,6 +273,7 @@ function Set-EnvironmentVars {
     "LOGS_DIR" = ${kube_env}['LOGS_DIR']
     "MANIFESTS_DIR" = ${kube_env}['MANIFESTS_DIR']
     "INFRA_CONTAINER" = ${kube_env}['WINDOWS_INFRA_CONTAINER']
+    "WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ" = ${kube_env}['WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ']
 
     "Path" = ${env:Path} + ";" + ${kube_env}['NODE_DIR']
     "KUBE_NETWORK" = "l2bridge".ToLower()
@@ -1309,6 +1310,7 @@ function Pull-InfraContainer {
 # Setup the container runtime on the node. It supports both
 # Docker and containerd.
 function Setup-ContainerRuntime {
+  Install-Pigz
   if (${env:CONTAINER_RUNTIME} -eq "containerd") {
     Install_Containerd
     Configure_Containerd
@@ -1529,6 +1531,40 @@ function Start_Containerd {
   Log-Output "Starting containerd service"
   Start-Service containerd
 }
+
+# Pigz Resources
+$PIGZ_ROOT = 'C:\pigz'
+$PIGZ_VERSION = '2.3.1'
+$PIGZ_TAR_URL = 'https://storage.googleapis.com/gke-release/winnode/pigz/prod/gke_windows/pigz/release/5/20201104-134221/pigz-$PIGZ_VERSION.zip'
+$PIGZ_TAR_HASH = '5a6f8f5530acc85ea51797f58c1409e5af6b69e55da243ffc608784cf14fec0cd16f74cc61c564d69e1a267750aecfc1e4c53b5219ff5f893b42a7576306f34c'
+
+# Install Pigz (https://github.com/madler/pigz) into Windows for improved image
+# extraction performance.
+function Install-Pigz {
+  if ("${env:WINDOWS_ENABLE_PIGZ}" -eq "true") {
+    if (-not (Test-Path $PIGZ_ROOT)) {
+      Log-Output "Installing Pigz $PIGZ_VERSION"
+      New-Item -Path $PIGZ_ROOT -ItemType Directory
+      MustDownload-File `
+        -Url $PIGZ_TAR_URL `
+        -OutFile "$PIGZ_ROOT\pigz-$PIGZ_VERSION.zip" `
+        -Hash $PIGZ_TAR_HASH `
+        -Algorithm SHA512
+      Expand-Archive -Path "$PIGZ_ROOT\pigz-$PIGZ_VERSION.zip" `
+        -DestinationPath $PIGZ_ROOT
+      Remove-Item -Path "$PIGZ_ROOT\pigz-$PIGZ_VERSION.zip"
+      # Docker and Containerd search for unpigz.exe on the first container image
+      # pull request after the service is started. If unpigz.exe is in the
+      # Windows path it'll use it instead of the default unzipper.
+      # See: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/issues/1896
+      Add-MachineEnvironmentPath -Path $PIGZ_ROOT
+      Log-Output "Installed Pigz $PIGZ_VERSION"
+    } else {
+      Log-Output "Pigz already installed."
+    }
+  }
+}
+
 # TODO(pjh): move the logging agent code below into a separate
 # module; it was put here temporarily to avoid disrupting the file layout in
 # the K8s release machinery.