Get started with Docker for Windows

Welcome to Docker for Windows!

Docker is a full development platform for creating containerized apps, and Docker for Windows is the best way to get started with Docker on Windows systems.

Got Docker for Windows? If you have not yet installed Docker for Windows, please see Install Docker for Windowsfor an explanation of stable  and edge channels, system requirements, and download/install information.

Looking for system requirements? Check out What to know before you install, which has moved to the new install topic.

Check versions of Docker Engine, Compose, and Machine

Start your favorite shell (cmd.exe, PowerShell, or other) to check your versions of docker and docker-compose, and verify the installation.

PS C:\Users\Docker> docker --version
Docker version 17.03.0-ce, build 60ccb22

PS C:\Users\Docker> docker-compose --version
docker-compose version 1.11.2, build dfed245

PS C:\Users\Docker> docker-machine --version
docker-machine version 0.10.0, build 76ed2a6

Explore the application and run examples

The next few steps take you through some examples. These are just suggestions for ways to experiment with Docker on your system, check version information, and make sure docker commands are working properly.

1. Open a shell (cmd.exe, PowerShell, or other).

2. Run some Docker commands, such as docker ps, docker version, and docker info.

   Here is the output of docker ps run in a powershell. (In this example, no containers are running yet.)

   PS C:\Users\jdoe> docker ps
   
   CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS              PORTS               NAMES
   

   Here is an example of command output for docker version.

   PS C:\Users\Docker> docker version
   Client:
   Version:      17.03.0-ce
   API version:  1.26
   Go version:   go1.7.5
   Git commit:   60ccb22
   Built:        Thu Feb 23 10:40:59 2017
   OS/Arch:      windows/amd64
   
   Server:
   Version:      17.03.0-ce
   API version:  1.26 (minimum version 1.12)
   Go version:   go1.7.5
   Git commit:   3a232c8
   Built:        Tue Feb 28 07:52:04 2017
   OS/Arch:      linux/amd64
   Experimental: true
   

   Here is an example of command output for docker info.

   PS C:\Users\Docker> docker info
   Containers: 0
    Running: 0
    Paused: 0
    Stopped: 0
   Images: 0
   Server Version: 17.03.0-ce
   Storage Driver: overlay2
    Backing Filesystem: extfs
    Supports d_type: true
    Native Overlay Diff: true
   Logging Driver: json-file
   Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
   Plugins:
    Volume: local
    Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
   Swarm: inactive
   Runtimes: runc
   Default Runtime: runc
   Init Binary: docker-init
   containerd version: 977c511eda0925a723debdc94d09459af49d082a
   runc version: a01dafd48bc1c7cc12bdb01206f9fea7dd6feb70
   init version: 949e6fa
   Security Options:
    seccomp
     Profile: default
   Kernel Version: 4.9.12-moby
   Operating System: Alpine Linux v3.5
   OSType: linux
   Architecture: x86_64
   CPUs: 2
   Total Memory: 1.934 GiB
   Name: moby
   ID: BM4O:645U:LUS6:OGMD:O6WH:JINS:K7VF:OVDZ:7NE4:ZVJT:PSMQ:5UA6
   Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
   Debug Mode (client): false
   Debug Mode (server): true
    File Descriptors: 13
    Goroutines: 21
    System Time: 2017-03-02T16:59:13.417299Z
    EventsListeners: 0
   Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/
   Experimental: true
   Insecure Registries:
    127.0.0.0/8
   Live Restore Enabled: false
   

   Note: The outputs above are examples. Your output for commands like docker version and docker infowill vary depending on your product versions (e.g., as you install newer versions).

3. Run docker run hello-world to test pulling an image from Docker Hub and starting a container.

   PS C:\Users\jdoe> docker run hello-world
   
   Hello from Docker.
   This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.
   
   To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
   1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
   2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
   3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
   4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it to your terminal.
   

4. Try something more ambitious, and run an Ubuntu container with this command.

   PS C:\Users\jdoe> docker run -it ubuntu bash
   

   This will download the ubuntu container image and start it. Here is the output of running this command in a powershell.

   PS C:\Users\jdoe> docker run -it ubuntu bash
   
   Unable to find image 'ubuntu:latest' locally
   latest: Pulling from library/ubuntu
   5a132a7e7af1: Pull complete
   fd2731e4c50c: Pull complete
   28a2f68d1120: Pull complete
   a3ed95caeb02: Pull complete
   Digest: sha256:4e85ebe01d056b43955250bbac22bdb8734271122e3c78d21e55ee235fc6802d
   Status: Downloaded newer image for ubuntu:latest
   

   Type exit to stop the container and close the powershell.

5. Start a Dockerized webserver with this command:

   PS C:\Users\jdoe> docker run -d -p 80:80 --name webserver nginx
   

   This will download the nginx container image and start it. Here is the output of running this command in a powershell.

   PS C:\Users\jdoe> docker run -d -p 80:80 --name webserver nginx
   
   Unable to find image 'nginx:latest' locally
   latest: Pulling from library/nginx
   
   fdd5d7827f33: Pull complete
   a3ed95caeb02: Pull complete
   716f7a5f3082: Pull complete
   7b10f03a0309: Pull complete
   Digest: sha256:f6a001272d5d324c4c9f3f183e1b69e9e0ff12debeb7a092730d638c33e0de3e
   Status: Downloaded newer image for nginx:latest
   dfe13c68b3b86f01951af617df02be4897184cbf7a8b4d5caf1c3c5bd3fc267f
   

Point your web browser at http://localhost to display the start page.

(Since you specified the default HTTP port, it isn’t necessary to append :80 at the end of the URL.)

1. Run docker ps while your webserver is running to see details on the container.

   PS C:\Users\jdoe> docker ps
   
   CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND                  CREATED             STATUS              PORTS
   NAMES
   dfe13c68b3b8        nginx               "nginx -g 'daemon off"   3 days ago          Up 45 seconds       0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, 443/tc
   p   webserver
   

Stop or remove containers and images.

The nginx webserver will continue to run in the container on that port until you stop and/or remove the container. If you want to stop the webserver, type: docker stop webserver and start it again with docker start webserver.

To stop and remove the running container with a single command, type: docker rm -f webserver. This will remove the container, but not the nginx image. You can list local images with docker images. You might want to keep some images around so that you don’t have to pull them again from Docker Hub. To remove an image you no longer need, use docker rmi followed by an image ID or image name. For example, docker rmi nginx.