Install And Configure Docker Desktop On Windows 10

Introduction

In the earlier articles Docker Introduction and Docker Architecture, we came to know the fundamentals, usage, and introduction of Docker. So let's learn how to install and configure Docker in Windows 10. Community provided community edition (CE) as this is a free version. As it's free licensing, you can download and install it on your personal computer. Docker fundamentals and details must be required in case you wanted to build Cloud Native Microservices related applications.

There are many more platforms and tools are available in the market which provides building container-based applications. However, in the last few years, Docker became a major industry-standard for building container-based applications using https://kubernetes.io/ organization.

Getting Started:

Docker requires Hyper-V enabled options for Windows 10. Without an enabled option, Docker can not run after installation. Therefore, the Hyper-V option must be enabled.

Enable Hyper-V option in Windows 10

Step 1

Ensure that the hardware virtualization support option is turned on in the BIOS settings.

Install And Configured Docker Desktop In Windows 10

Step 2

Enable the Hyper-V role through Windows Settings.

Right-click on the Windows button and please select 'Apps and Features'.
Select Programs and Features on the right under related windows settings.
Select Turn Windows Features on or off.
Select Hyper-V and click OK.

Please note that Docker needs enabled Hyper-V option in Windows 10 only. It will not be required with VMware Workstation or Virtual Box. For more detail, please refer to the Docker documentation. Since Docker will consume a lot of RAM, even I can feel it affected on speed performance on an 8GB RAM laptop of mine. However, it will not majorly be affected. You can still work on it smoothly. A 16GB RAM laptop may be the best option related to performance after installing Docker.

Download Docker Desktop for Windows

Docker Hub provides the official Docker Desktop installer. The Community edition can be downloaded from Docker Hub. Either you can create an account on Docker Hub or you can have a direct download option for Docker Desktop for Windows.

You can also download Docker from the Docker Official Site.

Click on Products Option -> Docker Desktop on the menu bar. This will take you to the docker desktop product page. Which will be redirected to Docker Desktop Page. Docker community provides all supported installers for Windows, Mac, Linux. You can download it as per your preference.

Click on the download icon or button. It will allow you to download an installer for Docker Desktop.

Installation Docker Using Docker Desktop Installer

After successfully downloading the installer file of Docker Desktop, please double click on the installer file. The Windows UAC screen will appear for permission to run the program. Click on Yes to continue to the installation process.

You can see from the image, Docker will automatically download or install additional required files. In the case that an internet connection is not enabled, it will automatically move to the next step which is the configuration screen where it asks to create an icon on the desktop and enable features in IIS.

Let's Run Docker

After restarting Windows, you can able to run Docker using the icon created on the desktop or choose the 'Docker Desktop' option from the start menu. Once you click on the icon, Docker starts its service automatically. It will take around 30 sec to start Docker services. Once Docker gets started, you can see an icon for Docker on the bottom right of the taskbar, as shown below.

Check the version of Docker that's installed

You can review the version of Docker by going to docker --version command in git bash, it will display the current version which is installed on your machine.

Summary

In this article, we learned to install and configure Docker Desktop in Windows 10. Apart from software UI, Docker has a large number of commands that can be executed through a terminal or command prompt. In my next upcoming article, we will learn the configuration of Docker with a web application. Installation of Docker is very easy, similar to other software installations on Windows 10.