Podman for Windows

While "containers are Linux," Podman also runs on Mac and Windows, where it provides a native CLI and embeds a guest Linux system to launch your containers. This guest is referred to as a Podman machine and is managed with the podman machine command.

On Windows, each Podman machine is backed by a virtualized Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSLv2) distribution or an Hyper-V virtual machine.

The Podman command can be run directly from your Windows PowerShell (or CMD) prompt, where it remotely communicates with the podman service running in the guest environment. In addition to command-line access, Podman also listens for Docker API clients, supporting direct usage of Docker-based tools and programmatic access from your language of choice.

Prerequisites
Installing Podman
- Directories, files and registry keys used by Podman on Windows
Machine Init Process
Starting Machine
First Podman Command
Port Forwarding
Using API Forwarding
Rootful & Rootless
Configuring the Machine Provider
Volume Mounting
Listing Podman Machine(s)
Accessing the Podman Linux Environment
Using SSH
Using the WSL Command
Using Windows Terminal Integration
Stopping a Podman Machine
Removing a Podman Machine
Uninstalling Podman
Troubleshooting
- Installing WSL Manually
Install Certificate Authority

Prerequisites

Because Podman uses WSLv2 or Hyper-V recent features, you need Windows 11 or later. Internally, WSL and Hyper-V use virtualization, so your system must support and have hardware virtualization enabled. If you are running Windows on a VM, you must have a VM that supports nested virtualization.

Hyper-V is only available on Windows Enterprise, Pro, or Education editions (not Home). The command to initialize the first Hyper-V Podman machine, and the command to remove the last one, both require administrator privileges because they create and delete machine-scope registry keys. Additionally, all Hyper-V machine commands require that the current user is a member of the Hyper-V Administrators group. To avoid these requirements, an administrator can run podman system hyperv-prep once to pre-create the registry entries and add the current user to the Hyper-V Administrators group, after which no machine operation requires administrator privileges.

It is also recommended to install the modern "Windows Terminal," which provides a superior user experience to the standard PowerShell and CMD prompts, as well as a WSL prompt, should you want it.

You can install it by searching the Windows Store or by running the following winget command:

winget install Microsoft.WindowsTerminal

Installing Podman

Installing the Windows Podman client begins by downloading the Podman Windows installer. The Windows installer is built with each Podman release and can be downloaded from the official GitHub release page. Be sure to download a Podman 6.0 or later release for the capabilities discussed in this guide.

The Windows installer is provided as an MSI package (e.g., podman-installer-windows-arm64.msi). The installer supports both user-scope and machine-scope installations:

User scope (per-user): No administrator privileges required. Files are installed in the user's profile directory (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Podman), and the PATH is updated only for the current user. This is the default scope.
Machine scope (per-machine): Requires administrator privileges. Files are installed in %PROGRAMFILES%\Podman, and the PATH is updated for all users.

During installation, you can select the virtualization provider (WSL or Hyper-V) that Podman will use for machines. The installer will create a configuration file at %APPDATA%\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf (for user scope) or %PROGRAMDATA%\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf (for machine scope) with the selected provider.

Once installed, relaunch a new terminal. After this point, podman.exe will be present on your PATH, and you will be able to run the podman machine init command to create your first machine.

Note: WSLv2 or Hyper-V must be installed before creating Podman machines. If WSL is not installed, you can install it manually by running wsl --install from an administrator PowerShell prompt. The Podman installer no longer automatically installs WSL. If the Hyper-V feature is not enabled, you can enable it by running Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All from an administrator PowerShell prompt.

Directories, files and registry keys used by Podman on Windows

The following tables list the directories, files and registry keys used by Podman on Windows.

Directories and files used by Podman on Windows
Directory or file	Description
`%LocalAppData%\Programs\Podman\`	Installation directory
`%APPDATA%\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf`	Installer created configuration file
`%APPDATA%\containers\containers.conf`	Client main configuration file
`%APPDATA%\containers\podman-connections.json`	Client connections configuration file
`%USERPROFILE%\.local\share\containers\podman\machine`	Machines data directory
`%USERPROFILE%\.config\containers\podman\machine\`	Machines configuration directory
`%USERPROFILE%\.local\share\containers\storage\podman\`	Containers and images storage layers
`%ProgramFiles%\Podman\`	Machine-scope installation directory
`%ProgramData%\containers\containers.conf.d\99-podman-machine-provider.conf`	Machine-scope installer created conf file
`%ProgramData%\containers\containers.conf`	Machine-scope client configuration file

Registry keys used by Podman on Windows
Key	Description
`HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Podman`	Installation directory path
`HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Podman`	Machine-scope Installation directory path
`HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization\GuestCommunicationServices`	Hyper-V socket registry entries (`{PORT_HEX}-FACB-11E6-BD58-64006A7986D3` pattern)

Machine Init Process

The podman machine init command will pull a custom Fedora OCI image (Fedora CoreOS when using Hyper-V) as an OCI artifact from quay.io/podman/machine-os. The image is customized to run Podman.

PS C:\Users\User> podman machine init
Looking up Podman Machine image at quay.io/podman/machine-os:6.0 to create VM
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob 24c97bc42489 done   |
Copying config 44136fa355 done   |
Writing manifest to image destination
24c97bc424897b38d15d0e229b7a27487a1f8ed8ec8c019ccf2bb18add970db5
Extracting compressed file: podman-machine-default-arm64: done
Importing operating system into WSL (this may take a few minutes on a new WSL install)...
The operation completed successfully.
Configuring system...
Machine init complete
To start your machine run:

        podman machine start

You can also specify the virtualization provider when initializing a machine:

PS C:\Users\User> podman machine init --provider wsl

PS C:\Users\User> podman machine init --provider hyperv

Note: Hyper-V requires administrator privileges to initialize the first podman machine. Similarly it requires administrator privileges to remove the last machine. That's because these operations create and delete machine-scope registry keys, required to support the communication between the guest OS and the host. Additionally, all Hyper-V machine commands require that the current user is a member of the Hyper-V Administrators group. To avoid these requirements, run podman system hyperv-prep once from an administrator terminal to pre-create persistent registry entries and add the current user to the Hyper-V Administrators group, so that all subsequent machine operations can run without administrator privileges.

Starting Machine

After the machine init process completes, it can then be started and stopped as desired:

PS C:\Users\User> podman machine start

Starting machine "podman-machine-default"

This machine is currently configured in rootless mode. If your containers
require root permissions (e.g. ports < 1024), or if you run into compatibility
issues with non-podman clients, you can switch using the following command:

        podman machine set --rootful

API forwarding listening on: npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine

Docker API clients default to this address. You do not need to set DOCKER_HOST.
Machine "podman-machine-default" started successfully

First Podman Command

From this point on, podman commands operate similarly to how they would on Linux.

For a quick working example with a small image, you can run the Linux date command on PowerShell.

PS C:\Users\User> podman run ubi9-micro date
Thu May 5 21:56:42 UTC 2022

If you get this error instead:

Cannot connect to Podman. Please verify your connection to the Linux system using `podman system connection list`, or try `podman machine init` and `podman machine start` to manage a new Linux VM
Error: unable to connect to Podman socket: Get "http://d/v5.7.1/libpod/_ping": ssh: rejected: connect failed (open failed)

try to restart the machine in rootful mode like this:

podman machine stop
podman machine set --rootful
podman machine start
podman run ubi8-micro date

Port Forwarding

Port forwarding also works as expected; ports will be bound against localhost (127.0.0.1).

Note: When running as rootless (the default), you must use a port greater than 1023. See the Rootful and Rootless section for more details.

To launch httpd, you can run:

PS C:\Users\User> podman run --rm -d -p 8080:80 --name httpd docker.io/library/httpd
f708641300564a6caf90c145e64cd852e76f77f6a41699478bb83a162dceada9

A curl command against localhost on the PowerShell prompt will return a successful HTTP response:

PS C:\Users\User> Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing http://localhost:8080/

StatusCode        : 200
StatusDescription : OK
Content           : <html><body><h1>It works!</h1></body></html>
[...]

As with Linux, to stop, run:

podman stop httpd

Using API Forwarding

API forwarding allows Docker API tools and clients to use Podman as if it was Docker. Provided there is no other service listening on the Docker API pipe; no special settings will be required.

PS C:\Users\User> docker run -it fedora echo "Hello Podman!"
Hello Podman!

Otherwise, after starting the machine, you will be notified of an environment variable you can set for tools to point to podman. Alternatively, you can shut down both the conflicting service and podman, then finally run podman machine start to restart, which should grab the Docker API address.

Another process was listening on the default Docker API pipe address.
You can still connect Docker API clients by setting DOCKER HOST using the
following PowerShell command in your terminal session:

        $Env:DOCKER_HOST = 'npipe:////./pipe/podman-machine-default'

Or in a classic CMD prompt:

        set DOCKER_HOST=npipe:////./pipe/podman-machine-default

Alternatively, terminate the other process and restart podman machine.
Machine "podman-machine-default" started successfully

PS C:\Users\User> $Env:DOCKER_HOST = 'npipe:////./pipe/podman-machine-default'
PS C:\Users\User>.\docker.exe version --format '{{(index .Server.Components 0).Name}}'
Podman Engine

Rootful & Rootless

On the embedded guest environment, Podman can either be run under the root user (rootful) or a non-privileged user (rootless). For behavioral consistency with Podman on Linux, rootless is the default.

Note: Rootful and Rootless containers are distinct and isolated from one another. Podman commands against one (e.g., podman ps) will not represent results/state for the other.

While most containers run fine in a rootless setting, you may find a case where the container only functions with root privileges. If this is the case, you can switch the machine to rootful by stopping it and using the set command:

podman machine stop
podman machine set --rootful

To restore rootless execution, set rootful to false:

podman machine stop
podman machine set --rootful=false

Another case in which you may wish to use rootful execution is binding a port less than 1024. However, future versions of Podman will likely drop this to a lower number to improve compatibility with defaults on system port services (such as MySQL)

Configuring the Machine Provider

Podman on Windows supports two virtualization providers: WSL and Hyper-V. The provider can be configured in several ways:

During installation: The MSI installer allows you to select the provider during installation and creates a configuration file automatically.
Via configuration file: You can manually create or edit the configuration file at:
- User scope: %APPDATA%\containers\containers.conf
- Machine scope: %PROGRAMDATA%\containers\containers.conf
Add the following content:
```
[machine]
provider = "wsl"
```
or
```
[machine]
provider = "hyperv"
```
Via environment variable: Set CONTAINERS_MACHINE_PROVIDER to wsl or hyperv.
Via command line: Specify the provider when initializing a machine:
```
podman machine init --provider wsl
```

Note: WSL and Hyper-V machines cannot run simultaneously. You must stop machines using one provider before starting machines with the other.

Volume Mounting

Podman supports volume mounts from Windows paths into Linux containers. This supports several notation schemes, including:

Windows Style Paths:

podman run --rm -v c:\Users\User\myfolder:/myfolder ubi9-micro ls /myfolder

Unixy Windows Paths:

podman run --rm -v /c/Users/User/myfolder:/myfolder ubi9-micro ls /myfolder

Linux paths local to the WSL filesystem:

podman run --rm -v /var/myfolder:/myfolder ubi9-micro ls /myfolder

All of the above conventions work, whether running on a Windows prompt or the WSL Linux shell. Although when using Windows paths on Linux, appropriately quote or escape the Windows path portion of the argument.

Listing Podman Machine(s)

To list the available podman machine instances and their current resource usage, use the podman machine ls command:

PS C:\Users\User> podman machine ls


NAME                    VM TYPE     CREATED         LAST UP            CPUS        MEMORY      DISK SIZE
wsl-default             wsl         2 hours ago     Currently running  12          16G         768MB
hyperv-default*         hyperv      16 minutes ago  Never              6           2GiB        100GiB

Since WSL shares the same virtual machine and Linux kernel across multiple distributions, the CPU and Memory values represent the total resources shared across running systems. The opposite applies to the Disk value. It is independent and represents the amount of storage for each individual distribution. The CPU, memory and disk size values for an Hyper-V machines instead, represent the number of vCPUs, memory and disk size allocated to the machine. Those values can be configured when creating the machine using the --cpus, --memory and --disk-size options. Or edited later using the podman machine set command.

Accessing the Podman Linux Environment

While using the podman.exe client on the Windows environment provides a seamless native experience supporting the usage of local desktop tools and APIs, there are a few scenarios in which you may wish to access the Linux environment:

Updating to the latest stable packages on the embedded Fedora instance
Using Linux development tools directly
Using a workflow that relies on EXT4 filesystem performance or behavior semantics

There are three mechanisms to access the embedded WSL distribution:

SSH using podman machine ssh
WSL command on the Windows PowerShell prompt
Windows Terminal Integration

Using SSH

SSH access provides a similar experience as Podman on Mac. It immediately drops you into the appropriate user based on your machine's rootful/rootless configuration (root in the former, 'user' in the latter). The --username option can be used to override with a specific user.

An example task using SSH is updating your Linux environment to pull down the latest OS bugfixes:

podman machine ssh sudo dnf upgrade -y

Using the WSL Command

The wsl command provides direct access to the Linux system. Unless you have no other distributions of WSL installed, it's recommended to use the -d option with the name of your podman machine (podman-machine-default is the default):

PS C:\Users\User> wsl -d podman-machine-default

You will be automatically entered into a nested process namespace where systemd is running. If you need to access the parent namespace, hit ctrl-d or type exit. This also means to log out, you need to exit twice.

[user@WINPC /]$ podman --version
podman version 6.0.0

To access commands that require root privileges, you can prefix the wsl command with sudo (the default user is sudoer):

wsl -d podman-machine-default sudo systemctl status

Accessing the WSL instance as a specific user using wsl -u is not recommended since commands will execute against the incorrect namespace.

Using Windows Terminal Integration

Entering WSL is a 2-click operation. Simply click the drop-down tag, and pick 'podman-machine-default,' where you will be entered directly as the default user.

[user@WINPC /]$ podman info --format '{{.Store.RunRoot}}'
/run/user/1000/containers

Stopping a Podman Machine

To stop a running podman machine, use the podman machine stop command:

PS C:\Users\User> podman machine stop
Machine "podman-machine-default" stopped successfully

Removing a Podman Machine

To remove a machine, use the podman machine rm command:

PS C:\Users\User> podman machine rm

The following files will be deleted:

C:\Users\User\.ssh\podman-machine-default
C:\Users\User\.ssh\podman-machine-default.pub
C:\Users\User\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl\podman-machine-default_fedora-35-x86_64.tar
C:\Users\User\.config\containers\podman\machine\wsl\podman-machine-default.json
C:\Users\User\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl\wsldist\podman-machine-default


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Uninstalling Podman

Podman can be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel. Administrator privileges are required if Podman was installed for the machine, rather than for a user.

The uninstaller does not clean up Podman data and configuration resources. These must be cleaned up manually.

Troubleshooting

Installing WSL Manually

If WSL is not installed on your system, you must install it manually before creating Podman machines. To install WSL:

Launch PowerShell as administrator
```
Start-Process powershell -Verb RunAs
```
Run the WSL install command
```
wsl --install
```
Reboot your system if prompted
After reboot, continue with podman machine init

If you encounter issues with WSL installation, you can attempt to reset your WSL system state:

Launch PowerShell as administrator
```
Start-Process powershell -Verb RunAs
```

Disable WSL Features

dism.exe /online /disable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart
dism.exe /online /disable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart

Reboot
Run manual WSL install
```
wsl --install
```
Continue with podman machine init

Install Certificate Authority

Instructions for installing a CA certificate can be found in the dedicated article.