Docker · Lesson 2 of 8
Install & Explore Docker Desktop
Get Docker running on your computer.
Docker Desktop is the easiest way to run Docker on Mac and Windows. It installs the Docker engine, the docker command line tool, Docker Compose, and a friendly dashboard where you can see your images and containers.
- Download Docker Desktop from docker.com
- Install and start it
- Check it works from the terminal
Install it
- Downloaddocker.com/products/docker-desktop
- Installopen the installer, accept defaults
- Startlaunch Docker Desktop, wait for "Engine running"
- Verifyrun docker version
On Linux you can install Docker Engine directly with your package manager instead of Docker Desktop.
Check the installation
Open a terminal and ask Docker for its version. If you see both a Client and a Server section, the engine is running and ready.
terminal
docker --version Docker version 27.3.1, build ce12230 docker run hello-world Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally latest: Pulling from library/hello-world Status: Downloaded newer image for hello-world:latest Hello from Docker! This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.
What just happened?
- docker runyou asked for the hello-world image
- PullDocker downloaded it from Docker Hub
- CreateDocker made a container from the image
- Runthe container printed its message and exited
The Docker Desktop dashboard
Containersstart, stop, view logs and open a terminal inside
Imageseverything you have downloaded or built
Volumessaved data that outlives containers
Docker Hub searchfind official images like nginx, postgres, python
Summary
Key takeaways
- Docker Desktop bundles the engine, CLI and Compose
- docker run hello-world proves it works
- The dashboard shows containers, images and volumes
Next up: Images & Containers — pull, run, list and clean up