Docker for Powershell

Use Docker on Windows without Docker-Desktop via a custom WSL-distribution based on Ubuntu (since version 0.3, before Alpine Linux was used).

Installation

Download the installer and execute it with Powershell. If you don't have WSL installed, you are asked to install it. This will need a reboot of your computer. In this case restart the installer afterwards.

To check if the installation has been successful type wsl -l -q in a powershell terminal. You should see the WSL distribution of DockerForPowershell there:

PS C:\Users\sebastian> wsl -l -q
...
DockerForPowershell-0.2
...

Usage

Start the Docker daemon by (replacing the version number if necessary):

PS C:\Users\sebastian> Start-Job -ScriptBlock {wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.3 -- sudo dockerd}

Id     Name            PSJobTypeName   State         HasMoreData     Location             Command
--     ----            -------------   -----         -----------     --------             -------
1      Job1            BackgroundJob   Running       True            localhost            wsl -d DockerForPowers...

If you are using a version < 0.3 you should run the following line instead:

wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.2 -e sh /root/start_dockerd

Use Docker by

wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.2 -- docker <arguments>

To have it more comfortable you may define these two functions:

function docker {return wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.2 -- docker $args}
function start_docker_daemon {return Start-Job -ScriptBlock {wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.3 -- sudo dockerd}}

Using them you shoud see an output like this:

PS C:\Users\sebastian> start_docker_daemon
PS C:\Users\sebastian> docker info
Client:
 Version:    26.1.5
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.14.0
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx

Server:
 Containers: 0
  Running: 0
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 0
 Images: 0
 Server Version: 26.1.5
 Storage Driver: overlay2
....

PS C:\Users\sebastian> docker images
REPOSITORY   TAG       IMAGE ID   CREATED   SIZE