Docker for Powershell

Use Docker on Windows without Docker-Desktop via a custom WSL-distribution based on Alpine Linux

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-0.1
...

Usage

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

wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.1 -e sh /root/start_dockerd

Use Docker by

wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.1 -e docker <arguments>

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

function docker {return wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.1 -e docker $args}
function start_docker_daemon {return wsl -d DockerForPowershell-0.1 -e sh /root/start_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