Docker releases its new app for Windows

Docker today introduced its new app for Windows (and Mac). The company’s new app for Windows allows users to easily access their Docker containers. Here are some of the features of the new Docker app for Windows:

• Faster and more reliable: no more VirtualBox! The Docker engine is running in an Alpine Linux distribution on top of an xhyve Virtual Machine on Mac OS X or on a Hyper-V VM on Windows, and that VM is managed by the Docker application. You don’t need docker-machine to run Docker for Mac and Windows.
• Tools integration: Docker for Mac is a Mac application and Docker for Windows is a Windows application, including a native user interface and auto-update capability. The Docker tool set comes bundled with it: Docker command line,Docker Compose, and Docker Notary command line.
• Volume mounting for your code and data: volume data access works correctly, including file change notifications (on Mac inotify now works seamlessly inside containers for volume mounted directories). This enables edit/test cycles for “in container” development.
• Easy access to running containers on the local host network: Docker for Mac and Windows include a DNS server for containers, and are integrated with the Mac OS X and Windows networking system. On a Mac, Docker can be used even when connected to a very restrictive corporate VPN.

Docker has also released a video going over some of the features of the new Windows app, which you can watch below:

https://youtu.be/9CuClvKMt04

The new Docker app isn’t available to everyone just yet. The company is currently testing it with a few beta testers, and you can sign up for the beta here. It is worth noting that you will need to have Windows 10 Pro and Hyper-V installed to be able to run Docker on your Windows machine.