How to install Docker on Windows 11

Docker is an open-source software which enables container-based vir­tu­al­isa­tion for apps and ap­plic­a­tions on Windows 11. Docker software can be used in the cloud or on local computers. In com­par­is­on to virtual machines, Docker vir­tu­al­ises in­di­vidu­al ap­plic­a­tions with the required software com­pon­ents and makes them available dy­nam­ic­ally, in­de­pend­ently and across systems. Docker can also be installed on Windows, Linux and macOS.

What is Docker on Windows 11?

Container vir­tu­al­isa­tion fun­da­ment­ally changed how software solutions were struc­tured, dis­trib­uted, and used. Docker open-source software was the first to implement container vir­tu­al­isa­tion on a large scale. While virtual machines vir­tu­al­ise entire operating systems, Docker con­tain­ers vir­tu­al­ise selected, isolated ap­plic­a­tions in the form of software con­tain­ers. These are compact, com­pat­ible, and scalable in several areas such as ap­plic­a­tion de­vel­op­ment, hosting, PaaS, staging and pro­duc­tion.

Docker con­tain­ers store software com­pon­ents in re­spect­ive con­tain­ers as an image, similar to physical con­tain­ers used in transport logistics. This allows isolated ap­plic­a­tions to be moved and executed between operating systems without any com­pat­ib­il­ity problems. Depending on the operating system, Docker allocates the ap­pro­pri­ate system resources to the cor­res­pond­ing ap­plic­a­tion’s container. The main advantage is how Docker makes ap­plic­a­tions light­weight, mobile, and versatile. The program can be installed on several operating systems using stand­ard­ised APIs, OS kernel, hy­per­visor or VM.

You can find in­struc­tions for al­tern­at­ive operating systems in the Digital Guide:

• How to install Docker on Windows 10
• How to install Docker on Ubuntu 22.04
• How to install Docker on Debian 11

What are the re­quire­ments for Docker?

Docker offers un­com­plic­ated cross-system com­pat­ib­il­ity. While virtual machines or classic hardware vir­tu­al­isa­tion simulate a guest operating system, Docker con­tain­ers share the host system’s kernel, but they are executed in user space as isolated processes. In Docker’s early days, the ap­plic­a­tion was used ex­clus­ively on Linux systems or on Linux-based operating systems. Today, the open-source software is char­ac­ter­ised by com­pre­hens­ive platform in­de­pend­ence. While Docker uses the local Linux kernel on Linux systems in 64-bit variants, non-Linux systems use a Linux system image known as a hy­per­visor or a virtual machine.

Supported Linux dis­tri­bu­tions include:

• Debian
• Fedora
• Ubuntu
• CentOS
• Oracle Linux
• Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux
• openSUSE
• SUSE Linux En­ter­prise

The cor­res­pond­ing in­stall­a­tion packages for Windows, macOS or cloud services such as Azure or AWS can be found on the Docker website.

In­stalling Docker on Windows 11

Docker can be installed on Windows 11 in a few steps. Begin by down­load­ing the Docker software from the official Docker website. Please note that using Docker on Windows 11 is not suitable for the Windows Server operating system. As Docker is designed for Linux systems, you will also need a vir­tu­al­isa­tion software such as WSL2. WSL2 is a free Windows subsystem for Linux which allows you to use Linux ap­plic­a­tions on Windows.

Step 1: Download Docker

Download the free Docker software from the official Docker website. Select the Docker Desktop option for this.

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Step 2: Install Docker

Click on the in­stall­a­tion package to start the in­stall­a­tion. Docker re­com­mends that you have a vir­tu­al­isa­tion platform such WSL2 already installed on Windows 11. Place a tick beside ‘Use WSL2 instead of Hyper-V’ to install WSL2 auto­mat­ic­ally. Click ‘OK’ to start the in­stall­a­tion. Reboot the system once the in­stall­a­tion is complete. Agree to the license agreement after rebooting. It is free to use Docker if it is being used privately or in small busi­nesses. Large companies should clarify in advance whether the open-source license is suitable for their needs.

Step 3: Install WSL2

After you agree to the license agreement, Docker will show a reminder that you need to complete the WSL2 in­stall­a­tion. Download WSL2 using the link in the Docker menu window to download the latest version. Open the in­stall­a­tion wizard and follow the in­stall­a­tion steps. After the in­stall­a­tion, reboot the system to complete the Docker and WSL2 in­stall­a­tion.

Step 4: Launch and test Docker Desktop

If Docker Desktop does not start auto­mat­ic­ally, click on the ap­plic­a­tion’s desktop icon. You can download the Hello World Docker image to check if Docker is working correctly. Enter the following command in Windows Power­Shell to do this:

Docker run hello-world

Docker will auto­mat­ic­ally download and execute the hello-world image. This checks whether Docker can download desired con­tain­ers or images to run on your system without any problems.

Step 5: Use Docker

There are some handy Docker commands which can make your work much easier. These include:

• docker: Lists the available commands on the Docker command line interface
• docker <COMMAND> --help: Lists the in­form­a­tion about the cor­res­pond­ing command if you enter the command as <COMMAND>
• docker image ls --all: Lists the Docker images on the host system
• docker container ls --alldocker ps -a: Lists the available Docker con­tain­ers on the computer
• docker info: Lists the in­form­a­tion about the Docker in­stall­a­tion

Check out our Docker tutorial for using Docker on Ubuntu and other Linux systems.