github.com/brianfoshee/docker@v1.6.0/docs/sources/installation/windows.md (about) 1 page_title: Installation on Windows 2 page_description: Docker installation on Microsoft Windows 3 page_keywords: Docker, Docker documentation, Windows, requirements, virtualbox, boot2docker 4 5 # Windows 6 > **Note:** 7 > Docker has been tested on Windows 7.1 and 8; it may also run on older versions. 8 > Your processor needs to support hardware virtualization. 9 10 The Docker Engine uses Linux-specific kernel features, so to run it on Windows 11 we need to use a lightweight virtual machine (VM). You use the **Windows Docker 12 Client** to control the virtualized Docker Engine to build, run, and manage 13 Docker containers. 14 15 To make this process easier, we've designed a helper application called 16 [Boot2Docker](https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker) creates a Linux virtual 17 machine on Windows to run Docker on a Linux operating system. 18 19 Although you will be using Windows Docker client, the docker engine hosting the 20 containers will still be running on Linux. Until the Docker engine for Windows 21 is developed, you can launch only Linux containers from your Windows machine. 22 23 ## Demonstration 24 25 <iframe width="640" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/TjMU3bDX4vo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 26 27 ## Installation 28 29 1. Download the latest release of the 30 [Docker for Windows Installer](https://github.com/boot2docker/windows-installer/releases/latest). 31 2. Run the installer, which will install Docker Client or Windows, VirtualBox, 32 Git for Windows (MSYS-git), the boot2docker Linux ISO, and the Boot2Docker 33 management tool. 34 ![](/installation/images/windows-installer.png) 35 3. Run the **Boot2Docker Start** shortcut from your Desktop or “Program Files → 36 Boot2Docker for Windows”. 37 The Start script will ask you to enter an ssh key passphrase - the simplest 38 (but least secure) is to just hit [Enter]. 39 40 4. The **Boot2Docker Start** will start a unix shell already configured to manage 41 Docker running inside the virtual machine. Run `docker version` to see 42 if it is working correctly: 43 44 ![](/installation/images/windows-boot2docker-start.png) 45 46 ## Running Docker 47 48 {{ include "no-remote-sudo.md" }} 49 50 **Boot2Docker Start** will automatically start a shell with environment variables 51 correctly set so you can start using Docker right away: 52 53 Let's try the `hello-world` example image. Run 54 55 $ docker run hello-world 56 57 This should download the very small `hello-world` image and print a 58 `Hello from Docker.` message. 59 60 ## Using docker from Windows Command Line Prompt (cmd.exe) 61 62 Launch a Windows Command Line Prompt (cmd.exe). 63 64 Boot2Docker command requires `ssh.exe` to be in the PATH, therefore we need to 65 include `bin` folder of the Git installation (which has ssh.exe) to the `%PATH%` 66 environment variable by running: 67 68 set PATH=%PATH%;"c:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin" 69 70 and then we can run the `boot2docker start` command to start the Boot2Docker VM. 71 (Run `boot2docker init` command if you get an error saying machine does not 72 exist.) Then copy the instructions for cmd.exe to set the environment variables 73 to your console window and you are ready to run docker commands such as 74 `docker ps`: 75 76 ![](/installation/images/windows-boot2docker-cmd.png) 77 78 ## Using docker from PowerShell 79 80 Launch a PowerShell window, then you need to add `ssh.exe` to your PATH: 81 82 $Env:Path = "${Env:Path};c:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin" 83 84 and after running `boot2docker start` command it will print PowerShell commands 85 to set the environment variables to connect Docker running inside VM. Run these 86 commands and you are ready to run docker commands such as `docker ps`: 87 88 ![](/installation/images/windows-boot2docker-powershell.png) 89 90 > NOTE: You can alternatively run `boot2docker shellinit | Invoke-Expression` 91 > command to set the environment variables instead of copying and pasting on 92 > PowerShell. 93 94 # Further Details 95 96 The Boot2Docker management tool provides several commands: 97 98 $ boot2docker 99 Usage: boot2docker.exe [<options>] {help|init|up|ssh|save|down|poweroff|reset|restart|config|status|info|ip|shellinit|delete|download|upgrade|version} [<args>] 100 101 ## Upgrading 102 103 1. Download the latest release of the [Docker for Windows Installer]( 104 https://github.com/boot2docker/windows-installer/releases/latest) 105 106 2. Run the installer, which will update the Boot2Docker management tool. 107 108 3. To upgrade your existing virtual machine, open a terminal and run: 109 110 boot2docker stop 111 boot2docker download 112 boot2docker start 113 114 ## Container port redirection 115 116 If you are curious, the username for the boot2docker default user is `docker` 117 and the password is `tcuser`. 118 119 The latest version of `boot2docker` sets up a host only network adaptor which 120 provides access to the container's ports. 121 122 If you run a container with an exposed port: 123 124 docker run --rm -i -t -p 80:80 nginx 125 126 Then you should be able to access that nginx server using the IP address reported 127 to you using: 128 129 boot2docker ip 130 131 Typically, it is 192.168.59.103, but it could get changed by Virtualbox's DHCP 132 implementation. 133 134 For further information or to report issues, please see the [Boot2Docker site](http://boot2docker.io) 135 136 ## Login with PUTTY instead of using the CMD 137 138 Boot2Docker generates and uses the public/private key pair in your `%USERPROFILE%\.ssh` 139 directory so to log in you need to use the private key from this same directory. 140 141 The private key needs to be converted into the format PuTTY uses. 142 143 You can do this with 144 [puttygen](http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html): 145 146 - Open `puttygen.exe` and load ("File"->"Load" menu) the private key from 147 `%USERPROFILE%\.ssh\id_boot2docker` 148 - then click: "Save Private Key". 149 - Then use the saved file to login with PuTTY using `docker@127.0.0.1:2022`. 150 151 ## References 152 153 If you have Docker hosts running and if you don't wish to do a 154 Boot2Docker installation, you can install the docker.exe using 155 unofficial Windows package manager Chocolately. For information 156 on how to do this, see [Docker package on Chocolatey](http://chocolatey.org/packages/docker).