Installing Podman Desktop and Podman on Windows

Installing Podman Desktop

To install Podman Desktop:

1. Download the Windows installer.

2. To start the Podman Desktop installer, open the downloaded file.

   

Alternate installation methods:

• Silent Windows installer
• Chocolatey
• Scoop
• Winget

Silent Windows installer

1. Download the Windows installer.

2. To install without user interaction, run the Windows installer with the silent flag /S from the Command Prompt:

   > podman-desktop-1.6.4-setup-x64.exe /S

Chocolatey

1. Install the Chocolatey package manager.

2. Install from the terminal:

   > choco install podman-desktop

Scoop package manager for Windows

1. Install the Scoop package manager.

2. Install from the terminal:

   > scoop bucket add extras
   > scoop install podman-desktop

Winget

1. Install the Winget Package manager for Windows.

2. Install from the terminal:

   > winget install -e --id RedHat.Podman-Desktop

Installing Podman

On Windows, running the Podman container engine requires running a Linux distribution on a virtual machine.

Use WSL2 as machine provider

Podman Desktop creates a Windows Subsystem for Linux version 2 (WSL 2) virtual machine: the Podman Machine.

Main benefits are:

• Ease of use.
• WSL 2 native virtualization performance.

Check that your environment has:

• 6 GB RAM for the Podman Machine.
• Windows Subsystem for Linux version 2 (WSL 2) prerequisites. See Enabling WSL 2, WSL basic commands, and Troubleshooting WSL 2:
  • The Windows user has administrator privileges.
  • Windows 64bit.
  • Windows 10 Build 19043 or greater, or Windows 11.
  • On a virtual machine: Nested Virtualization enabled.

To install the Podman Machine:

1. To prepare your system, enable the WSL feature, without installing the default Ubuntu distribution of Linux.

   Open the Command Prompt, and run:.

   > wsl --update
   > wsl --install --no-distribution
   note

   If you run the Podman Desktop setup on a Windows 10 LTSC version, you require to install a specific WSL distribution. See Troubleshooting Podman on Windows

2. Restart your computer.

3. The Dashboard screen displays: Podman needs to be set up.

   

4. Click the Set up button.

5. Review and validate all confirmation screens to set up the Podman machine.

6. When necessary, follow the instructions to install system prerequisites.

To verify that Podman is set up:

• In the Dashboard, the Podman tile displays Podman is running.

  

Use Hyper-V as machine provider

As an administrator, you can set up a Podman machine using Hyper-V as the machine provider type. To do so, select hyperv from the Provider Type dropdown list when creating a Podman machine.

note

If you already have a running Podman machine with the WSL provider type, you will be prompted to set the Hyper-V machine as the default machine to avoid CLI errors.

Verification

1. Go to Settings > Resources.
2. View the created machine in the Podman tile.

Next steps

• Work with containers.
• Work with Kubernetes.