How to install Podman on Windows in 3 Easy Steps!
Table of Contents
In this guide, I'll be covering how to install Podman on Windows in 3 easy steps.
For this guide, I've uninstalled my installed Podman Desktop app and deleted my WSL2 virtual machines so that I can walk you through step by step how to setup Podman Desktop from scratch!
Let's dive in:
Step 1: Setup WSL2 for Podman on Windows
With modern WSL2 it's pretty simple to install, all you need to do is run the following commands in a powershell window with administrator privileges. (Search powershell, right click > run as administrator)
Once you've launched powershell with admin privileges, then execute the following command to install WSL:
wsl --install
This command will install any requirements needed and setup a default Ubuntu instance after you have supplied a username and password.
Once you execute this command you should see something similar to this:
That's it, pretty simple!
Step 2: Install and Configure Podman Desktop
Now for the podman windows installation, I highly recommend installing Podman Desktop, because it includes both the CLI and a desktop application while performing the setup for you.
Once you have installed podman desktop and launched it, navigate to Settings > Resources > Create Podman Machine as seen here:
Once you have navigated to the settings page, go ahead and click Create new podman machine, you should then see something like this:
If you're a beginner, the default field values are perfectly fine, if you'd like to know what the fields are for, here is the podman create machine documentation.
When you are satisfied with your setup, go ahead and click create. It will take a second or two but afterwards your podman machine will have been created and the setup is done!
Step 3: Test Podman by running a 'Hello Podman' container
To test if our podman windows installation is working correctly, open up powershell and execute the following command:
podman run hello-world
You should see the following output from the terminal which means you have successfully installed Podman!
Conclusion
You have successfully setup WSL, installed Podman on Windows and can now start your containerization journey!
I recommend you read my podman for beginners guide and have a look at the other guides I have to offer for Podman, this is to give you an idea of what the features are and what you can do with this awesome tool!
As always, thanks for reading and see you next time!