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Rancher Desktop

Rancher Desktop is an open-source application that provides container management and Kubernetes on your desktop. It is a fully free alternative to Docker Desktop that includes a local Kubernetes cluster out of the box.

Official documentation: docs.rancherdesktop.io

Prerequisites​

  • Virtualization enabled in BIOS/UEFI
  • Windows: WSL2 enabled
  • 4GB RAM minimum (8GB+ recommended)

Installation​

# Using winget
winget install suse.RancherDesktop

# Using Chocolatey
choco install rancher-desktop -y

Or download from Rancher Desktop Releases.

Verify Installation​

docker --version
docker run hello-world

Container Runtime Options​

Rancher Desktop supports two container runtimes:

RuntimeDescriptionDocker CLI Compatible
dockerd (moby)Docker's container runtimeYes - full compatibility
containerdLightweight runtime used by KubernetesVia nerdctl (Docker-compatible CLI)
Recommendation

Choose dockerd (moby) if you need full Docker CLI compatibility and do not want to change your existing workflows.

Quick Reference​

With dockerd runtime, all standard Docker commands work. See the Docker CLI Reference for complete documentation.

With containerd runtime, use nerdctl which mirrors Docker syntax. See the nerdctl documentation.