In this blog, I will show you how to install Docker version 19 in Windows 10. We will be using community edition (CE) as this is a free version. You can use this edition to install it on your personal computer to learn and build application around it. Knowledge of Docker is a must if you want to build Cloud Native Microservices based applications.

• Docker Toolbox
• Docker Windows Home Version
• Docker Windows Home
• Docker Windows Home Wsl
• Docker Windows Home Edition

There are other platforms for building container based application. But over the years, Docker has become the industry standard for building container based application using Kubernetes for orchestration. As such, Docker skill is must for IT professionals.

Hi Rolf, Yes, I have ticked the C drive box. It just tested again on Docker version 1.11.1 (build 5604cbe) on the work Dell PC and it fails. I tested the same version on my personal laptop and it works. As the Docker documentation states. If you are using Docker Machine on Mac or Windows, your Engine daemon has only limited access to your OS X or Windows filesystem. Docker Machine tries to auto-share your /Users (OS X) or C: Users (Windows) direc.

Lets get started

Prerequisites: Docker requires Hyper-V enabled in Windows 10. Without this Docker will not run after you install Docker. To enable Hyper-V in Windows, please follow my post here

Please note that Docker needs Hyper-V only in Windows 10. It will not work with VMware Workstation or Virtual Box. You can refer to the docker documentation

Docker consumes a lot of RAM. I can feel the performance issue after I run Docker on my 8 GB RAM Laptop. You can still work, it wont create major problems. I think, on a 16 GB RAM machine, you should not feel the performance issue.

Docker Toolbox

8 GB machines works for me, so its OK.

Step 1 – Download Docker

Officially Docker installer, community edition can be downloaded from Docker Store. You will have to create an account to be able to download it. Having an account for Docker is a very good things. It allows you to download docker images in the future.

If you dont want to create an account, this is the direct link to Download Docker Installer.

You can also reach the Docker Store download page from the Docker official page. Go to the Docker Official home Page.

Click on Products-> Docker Desktop on the menu bar. This will take you to the docker desktop product page.

Docker Desktop Product Webpage

Click on Download Desktop for Mac and Windows.

The installer file for windows is around 914 MB.

Step 2 – Run the installer

Double click on the downloaded installer file to start the installation wizard. You will see Windows UAC – User Access Control asking for permission to allow the program to run. Click yes to continue.

Docker Installation – Windows User Access Control

Now you will see Docker installer downloading additional files required. If you dont have internet connection, installer will move on to the next step. Wait for the process to complete and you will see the configuration screen.

Step 3 – Configuration Settings

In this dialog box you will be asked if you want to create desktop icon for Docker. I leave this checked. Second option is if you want to use Linux or Windows Container. This option can be changed later on. I leave it as default, that is unchecked.

Containers run on your host operating system which can be Linux or Windows. Ideally you can run Linux container on Linux OS and Windows container on Windows OS. This could be a problem in development machines if you want to develop Linux container based application on Windows.
To get around this, Docker allow users to create both Linux and windows container on the same windows machine without having to switch between OS platforms. To achieve this, Docker provides a Linux VM for Hyper-V called MobyLinuxVM as a part of installation process. This VM runs Linux container and your Windows 10 host runs Windows Containers. You cannot run both Windows and Linux Containers at the same time. That is why Docker allows you to switch between Windows and Linux container.
With this you can run both Linux and Windows Containers side by side as a part of the same Docker Installation for Windows.

Click OK to start the installation. Wait for the installation to complete.

Docker Installation progress

Once the installation completes, click on Close and restart to complete the installation.

Step 4 – Run Docker

Once the system restarts, run Docker by double clicking the icon created on the desktop or from start menu. You will see a docker icon appear on your windows task bar. If you hover your mouse over it, it will say “Docker is Starting”. You will see a warning asking your permission to start the docker service. Click Start to continue and wait for docker service to start.

Docker Service not running warning

Once docker service starts for the first time, you will see a welcome screen asking you to login to Docker Hub. Enter the docker hub credentials you have created and click on sign in. This is optional but it is highly recommended that you do it.

Docker Desktop welcome screen

Step 5 – Disable Start Docker at Startup

By default, docker will automatically start when you turn on/login to your computer. Since Docker requires a lot of RAM, I don’t recommend this. We can start docker manually when we want to use it.

To disable starting docker at startup, right click on the docker Icon in the task bar. Click on Settings, under General Tab, uncheck, Start Docker when you login.

Click on apply and restart to make the changes. This will restart the docker service again (I will not restart Windows, only the docker service).

Step 6 – Check the version of Docker Installed

Most of the time you will be working with command line to work with Docker. Let this be your first command to check Docker version and see what you get.
Open Powershell or command prompt and enter the command:
docker version
You should see something like this.

Docker Version Check – Windows Command Line

That’s it for now.

Whats Next
You can start your Docker Journey by learning about the command you can execute in your computer terminal.

Good luck.

This step-by-step guide will help you get started developing with remote containers by setting up Docker Desktop for Windows with WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux, version 2).

Docker Desktop for Windows is available for free and provides a development environment for building, shipping, and running dockerized apps. By enabling the WSL 2 based engine, you can run both Linux and Windows containers in Docker Desktop on the same machine.

Overview of Docker containers

Docker is a tool used to create, deploy, and run applications using containers. Containers enable developers to package an app with all of the parts it needs (libraries, frameworks, dependencies, etc) and ship it all out as one package. Using a container ensures that the app will run the same regardless of any customized settings or previously installed libraries on the computer running it that could differ from the machine that was used to write and test the app's code. This permits developers to focus on writing code without worrying about the system that code will be run on.

Docker containers are similar to virtual machines, but don't create an entire virtual operating system. Instead, Docker enables the app to use the same Linux kernel as the system that it's running on. This allows the app package to only require parts not already on the host computer, reducing the package size and improving performance.

Continuous availability, using Docker containers with tools like Kubernetes, is another reason for the popularity of containers. This enables multiple versions of your app container to be created at different times. Rather than needing to take down an entire system for updates or maintenance, each container (and it's specific microservices) can be replaced on the fly. You can prepare a new container with all of your updates, set up the container for production, and just point to the new container once it's ready. You can also archive different versions of your app using containers and keep them running as a safety fallback if needed.

To learn more, checkout the Introduction to Docker containers on Microsoft Learn.

Prerequisites

Docker Windows Home Version

• Ensure your machine is running Windows 10, updated to version 2004, Build 18362 or higher.
• Enable WSL, install a Linux distribution, and update to WSL 2.
• Download and install the Linux kernel update package.
• Install Visual Studio Code(optional). This will provide the best experience, including the ability to code and debug inside a remote Docker container and connected to your Linux distribution.
• Install Windows Terminal(optional). This will provide the best experience, including the ability to customize and open multiple terminals in the same interface (including Ubuntu, Debian, PowerShell, Azure CLI, or whatever you prefer to use).
• Sign up for a Docker ID at Docker Hub(optional).

Note

WSL can run distributions in both WSL version 1 or WSL 2 mode. You can check this by opening PowerShell and entering: wsl -l -v. Ensure that the your distribution is set to use WSL 2 by entering: wsl --set-version <distro> 2. Replace <distro> with the distro name (e.g. Ubuntu 18.04).

In WSL version 1, due to fundamental differences between Windows and Linux, the Docker Engine couldn't run directly inside WSL, so the Docker team developed an alternative solution using Hyper-V VMs and LinuxKit. However, since WSL 2 now runs on a Linux kernel with full system call capacity, Docker can fully run in WSL 2. This means that Linux containers can run natively without emulation, resulting in better performance and interoperability between your Windows and Linux tools.

Install Docker Desktop

With the WSL 2 backend supported in Docker Desktop for Windows, you can work in a Linux-based development environment and build Linux-based containers, while using Visual Studio Code for code editing and debugging, and running your container in the Microsoft Edge browser on Windows.

To install Docker (after already installing WSL 2):

1. Download Docker Desktop and follow the installation instructions.

2. Once installed, start Docker Desktop from the Windows Start menu, then select the Docker icon from the hidden icons menu of your taskbar. Right-click the icon to display the Docker commands menu and select 'Settings'.

3. Ensure that 'Use the WSL 2 based engine' is checked in Settings > General.

4. Select from your installed WSL 2 distributions which you want to enable Docker integration on by going to: Settings > Resources > WSL Integration.

5. To confirm that Docker has been installed, open a WSL distribution (e.g. Ubuntu) and display the version and build number by entering: docker --version

6. Test that your installation works correctly by running a simple built-in Docker image using: docker run hello-world

Tip

Here are a few helpful Docker commands to know:

• List the commands available in the Docker CLI by entering: docker
• List information for a specific command with: docker <COMMAND> --help
• List the docker images on your machine (which is just the hello-world image at this point), with: docker image ls --all
• List the containers on your machine, with: docker container ls --all or docker ps -a (without the -a show all flag, only running containers will be displayed)
• List system-wide information regarding the Docker installation, including statistics and resources (CPU & memory) available to you in the WSL 2 context, with: docker info

Develop in remote containers using VS Code

To get started developing apps using Docker with WSL 2, we recommend using VS Code, along with the Remote-WSL extension and Docker extension.

• Install the VS Code Remote-WSL extension. This extension enables you to open your Linux project running on WSL in VS Code (no need to worry about pathing issues, binary compatibility, or other cross-OS challenges).

• Install the VS code Remote-Containers extension. This extension enables you to open your project folder or repo inside of a container, taking advantage of Visual Studio Code's full feature set to do your development work within the container.

• Install the VS Code Docker extension. This extension adds the functionality to build, manage, and deploy containerized applications from inside VS Code. (You need the Remote-Container extension to actually use the container as your dev environment.)

Let's use Docker to create a development container for an existing app project.

1. For this example, I'll use the source code from my Hello World tutorial for Django in the Python development environment set up docs. You can skip this step if you prefer to use your own project source code. To download my HelloWorld-Django web app from GitHub, open a WSL terminal (Ubuntu for example) and enter: git clone https://github.com/mattwojo/helloworld-django.git

   Note

   Always store your code in the same file system that you're using tools in. This will result in faster file access performance. In this example, we are using a Linux distro (Ubuntu) and want to store our project files on the WSL file system wsl. Storing project files on the Windows file system would significantly slow things down when using Linux tools in WSL to access those files.

2. From your WSL terminal, change directories to the source code folder for this project:

3. Open the project in VS Code running on the local Remote-WSL extension server by entering:

   Confirm that you are connected to your WSL Linux distro by checking the green remote indicator in the bottom-left corner of your VS Code instance.

4. From the VS Code command pallette (Ctrl + Shift + P), enter: Remote-Containers: Open Folder in Container... If this command doesn't display as you begin to type it, check to ensure that you've installed the Remote Container extension linked above.

5. Select the project folder that you wish to containerize. In my case, this is wslUbuntu-20.04homemattwojoreposhelloworld-django

6. A list of container definitions will appear, since there is no DevContainer configuration in the project folder (repo) yet. The list of container configuration definitions that appears is filtered based on your project type. For my Django project, I'll select Python 3.

7. A new instance of VS Code will open, begin building our new image, and once the build completed, will start our container. You will see that a new .devcontainer folder has appeared with container configuration information inside a Dockerfile and devcontainer.json file.

8. To confirm that your project is still connected to both WSL and within a container, open the VS Code integrated terminal (Ctrl + Shift + ~). Check the operating system by entering: uname and the Python version with: python3 --version. You can see that the uname came back as 'Linux', so you are still connected to the WSL 2 engine, and Python version number will be based on the container config that may differ from the Python version installed on your WSL distribution.

9. To run and debug your app inside of the container using Visual Studio Code, first open the Run menu (Ctrl+Shift+D or select the tab on the far left menu bar). Then select Run and Debug to select a debug configuration and choose the configuration that best suites your project (in my example, this will be 'Django'). This will create a launch.json file in the .vscode folder of your project with instructions on how to run your app.

10. From inside VS Code, select Run > Start debugging (or just press the F5 key). This will open a terminal inside VS Code and you should see a result saying something like: 'Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/ Quit the server with CONTROL-C.' Hold down the Control key and select the address displayed to open your app in your default web browser and see your project running inside of its container.

You have now successfully configured a remote development container using Docker Desktop, powered by the WSL 2 backend, that you can code in, build, run, deploy, or debug using VS Code!

Docker Windows Home

Troubleshooting

WSL docker context deprecated

If you were using an early Tech Preview of Docker for WSL, you may have a Docker context called 'wsl' that is now deprecated and no longer used. You can check with the command: docker context ls. You can remove this 'wsl' context to avoid errors with the command: docker context rm wsl as you want to use the default context for both Windows and WSL2.

Possible errors you might encounter with this deprecated wsl context include: docker wsl open //./pipe/docker_wsl: The system cannot find the file specified. or error during connect: Get http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2Fdocker_wsl/v1.40/images/json?all=1: open //./pipe/docker_wsl: The system cannot find the file specified.

For more on this issue, see How to set up Docker within Windows System for Linux (WSL2) on Windows 10.

Trouble finding docker image storage folder

Docker creates two distro folders to store data:

• wsl$docker-desktop
• wsl$docker-desktop-data

You can find these folders by opening your WSL Linux distribution and entering: explorer.exe . to view the folder in Windows File Explorer. Enter: wsl<distro name>mntwsl replacing <distro name> with the name of your distribution (ie. Ubuntu-20.04) to see these folders.

Docker Windows Home Wsl

Find more on locating docker storage locations in WSL, see this issue from the WSL repo or this StackOverlow post.

For more help with general troubleshooting issues in WSL, see the Troubleshooting doc.

Docker Windows Home Edition

Additional resources