Installation & Setup Guide

Set up Docker Engine and Docker Desktop on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

1. Windows Installation (Docker Desktop + WSL2)

1. Ensure WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2) is enabled in PowerShell: wsl --install.
2. Download Docker Desktop for Windows from the official Docker website.
3. Run the installer and check the option Use WSL 2 instead of Hyper-V.
4. Restart your machine and launch Docker Desktop.

2. macOS Installation

Download Docker Desktop for Mac (Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3 chip or Intel chip) or install via Homebrew:

brew install --cask docker

3. Linux (Ubuntu / Debian) Installation

Install Docker Engine via official apt repositories on Ubuntu:

# 1. Update package index & install prerequisites
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release

# 2. Add Docker's official GPG key
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

# 3. Set up repository & install Docker Engine
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin

# 4. Manage Docker as a non-root user
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

4. Verifying Installation

Run the official Docker hello-world container to verify system setup:

docker --version docker run hello-world