The location of images in Docker for Windows

Docker Desktop
1

Where is the location of the ‘images’ folder in Docker for Windows?

I have pulled several images but I can’t find where they are located on my Windows 10 file system.

2

The images exist inside the Virtual Machine at following path, /var/lib/docker/containers

The VM itself exists at /Users//.docker/machine/machines/default/ with the default name of ‘disk’.

3

Thanks! But I don’t see the .docker/machine/machines/default/ folder under C:\Users directory.

I installed it using the default installation option when I installed Docker for Windows.

4

Sorry, I have found the specified folder but I am looking for where Kitematics saves the image files I downloaded from Docker Hub.

/Users//.docker/machine/machines/default/ does not look like it contains any docker image files I downloaded.

5

Are you using “Docker for Windows” or docker_machine? see: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/

If you use docker for windows, you can open the powershell and use this command

docker run -it --privileged --pid=host debian nsenter -t 1 -m -u -i sh … to access your alpine VM shell.
docker images … should list your images.
ls /var/lib/docker/ … should show your directory content.

6

Hi Guys,
I too have the problem in location the folder on file system. I can not locate the path /Users//.docker/machine/machines/default/ on my Windows 10 Pro machine. I am downloading the images from Docker HUB using docker 1.13 version.
Please let me know what other possible location for images to be stored and if it can be configured in docker for our own choice of location.

7

If you use “Docker for Windows” , there is no /User//.docker directory, because the images are inside the VM.

Where did download your docker version?

Overview:
“Docker for Windows” … https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/
“Docker Machine” … https://docs.docker.com/machine/overview/ , which is part of the
"Docker Toolbox" … https://docs.docker.com/toolbox/overview/

Docker 1.13 isn’t out yet. Latest beta is: 1.13.0-rc3, which is a release candidate.
see: https://github.com/docker/docker/releases

8

See: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual hard disks\MobyLinuxVM.vhdx

9

@pmario thank you for the command. But the image IDs that I see under the path you mentioned are not the same as I see when running “Docker images”!! Do you know why there are different?

10

Hi @alagha007 I’m not sure, which directories you have a look at. But the images are built out of layers, and every layer has its own hash. … So you may try docker inspect <image-name> from the powershell CLI.

see: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/ It will give you more info. I’d start there.

have fun!
mario

11

You can move images to alternative drive while using Windows containers with “graph” setting in docker settings. Details are here.
Walkthrough

12

Hi @asegid,
you can run docker inspect b232e2bb2dfd command in PS where b232e2bb2dfd is your cotainerID and this will give you the location of windowsfilter and inside that the images are stored.
It is generally in C:\ProgramData\docker\windowsfilter