Although Docker was ori­gin­ally developed for Linux, the de­vel­op­ment en­vir­on­ment Docker Desktop has since become available on Windows platforms. We will introduce you to the re­quire­ments and provide you with a step-by-step in­stall­a­tion guide for Docker on Windows 10 so that you can develop and test ap­plic­a­tions in isolated con­tain­ers.

System re­quire­ments for Docker Desktop for Windows 10

Docker Desktop contains all the necessary tools to run Docker ap­plic­a­tions on your desktop including the Docker engine, the Docker CLI tools and the Docker compose feature. It also offers you the option to download images, share con­tain­ers via the cloud and integrate IDEs and build tools.

Fur­ther­more, Docker Desktop is free for non-com­mer­cial use and can be down­loaded from the official Docker website. It’s a powerful and flexible platform to help de­velopers quickly and ef­fect­ively create ap­plic­a­tions.

To use Docker you need to activate Vir­tu­al­iz­a­tion in Windows since the container tech­no­logy needs a Linux core which is made available by the virtual machine (VM). It’s important to note that Windows Pro as well as Hyper-V also supports the Windows subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) as a vir­tu­al­isa­tion system. On the other hand, for Windows Home WSL 2 is the only option you have to run Docker Desktop.

Your Windows 10 system should meet the following minimum re­quire­ments to suc­cess­fully install Docker on your Windows 10 system:

  • Processer (CPU): 64 bit with Second Level Address Trans­la­tion (SLAT)
  • Memory (RAM): 4 GB
  • Operating system: Windows 10 Home, Pro­fes­sion­al or En­ter­prise
  • Vir­tu­al­isa­tion: Hardware vir­tu­al­isa­tion must be activated in the computer BIOS
  • Hyper-V: is optional for Windows Pro­fes­sion­al or En­ter­prise
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2): must be activated for Windows Home
  • Hard-disk drive: min. 20 GB
  • Internet con­nec­tion: to download packages

Do you have a newer version of Windows? Use our guide “Install Docker Desktop on Windows 11” to find out all you need to know.

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Step by step guide to in­stalling Docker on Windows 10

You have two options if you want to install Docker on Windows 10. You can either use the in­stall­a­tion assistant with a graphical user interface or the command bar. We will introduce you to both methods for all Windows 10 editions below.

Step 1: Download and run Docker Desktop

You can download the official Docker Desktop version from the Docker Hub. Once you’ve down­loaded it you can run the file Docker Desktop Installer.exe. If your system supports Hyper-V and WSL 2 you will need to choose one of the two versions. If either Hyper-V or SWL 2 is active then you will only have one option. Fur­ther­more, you can create a desktop shortcut.

Image: Configuration options in Docker installation assistants
In the in­stall­a­tion assistant you can choose between Hyper-V or WSL 2 to configure Docker.

This will begin the ini­tial­isa­tion process.

Image: Docker Desktop: Installation process
Docker Desktop in­stall­a­tion process

Al­tern­at­ively, you can use the command bar to install Docker on Windows 10. To do so, enter the following command in the terminal:

$ "Docker Desktop Installer.exe" install
shell

It’s also possible to install it via Power­Shell:

Start-Process 'Docker Desktop Installer.exe' -Wait install
power­shell

The in­stall­a­tion will be carried out the same via the Windows command bar (cmd):

start /w "" "Docker Desktop Installer.exe" install
cmd
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Step 2: Restart Windows

Image: Notification: Restart Windows after installing
Windows restart after Docker in­stall­a­tion.

If you’re using an account different to the ad­min­is­trat­or account, the user needs to be added to the docker-users group. To do this, open ‘Computer Man­age­ment’ from an admin account and go to Local Users and Groups/Groups/docker-users. Right click on the user and you’ll be able to add them to a group. Log in again to save the changes.

Via the terminal you can do the same. Replace <user> with the username you wish to add to the group:

$  net localgroup docker-users <user> /add
shell

Step 3: Start Docker Desktop

After re­start­ing your system, you can run Docker Desktop and run your first container. In the open window you will see the Docker tutorial.

Image: Docker Desktop tutorial
Docker Desktop tutorial

After in­stall­a­tion you will see the Docker commands in the command bar.

Image: Docker commands in the terminal
The Docker commands can be run in the terminal after in­stall­a­tion.

From the Docker Desktop user interface you can directly download and start Docker Images. Enter the name of the ap­plic­a­tion in the search bar and click on ‘run’. In our example, we’ve chosen the HTTP server Nginx.

Image: Run Nginx container
In Docker Desktop you can run the Nginx container.

Enter http://localhost:80/ in your browser and you will see that the Linux container ‘nginx’ is running on your Windows 10 system.

Image: Start Nginx in your browser
Start Nginx in your browser
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If you’d prefer to use Linux, you can read our guide on how to install Docker on Ubuntu 22.04 or install Docker on Debian 11.

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