How to check if Docker is running on Windows?

Try running either of these commands on Powershell or cmd, if docker is installed, you should get a error free response:

docker --version
OR
docker-compose --version
OR
docker ps

Afford two methods:

1. docker version

   This method works both for cmd & powershell, but if for cmd, you need to use echo %errorlevel% to check the result.

   If docker daemon is running, it will be like next:

   PS C:\> docker version
   Client: Docker Engine - Community
   Version:           18.09.2
   API version:       1.39
   Go version:        go1.10.8
   Git commit:        6247962
   Built:             Sun Feb 10 04:12:31 2019
   OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
   Experimental:      false
   
   Server: Docker Engine - Community
    Engine:
     Version:          18.09.2
     API version:      1.39 (minimum version 1.12)
     Go version:       go1.10.6
     Git commit:       6247962
     Built:            Sun Feb 10 04:13:06 2019
     OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
     Experimental:     false
   PS C:\> echo $?
   True
   

   If docker daemon not running, it will be next:

   PS C:\> docker version
   Client: Docker Engine - Community
   Version:           18.09.2
   API version:       1.39
   Go version:        go1.10.8
   Git commit:        6247962
   Built:             Sun Feb 10 04:12:31 2019
   OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
   Experimental:      false
   Error response from daemon: An invalid argument was supplied.
   PS C:\> echo $?
   False
   

2. Get-Process:

   This method just works for powershell.

   If docker daemon is running, it will be next:

   PS C:\> Get-Process 'com.docker.proxy'
   Handles  NPM(K)    PM(K)      WS(K)     CPU(s)     Id  SI ProcessName
   -------  ------    -----      -----     ------     --  -- -----------
       205      10    11416      18860       0.13  12620   2 com.docker.proxy
   PS C:\> echo $?
   True
   

   If docker daemon is not running, it will be next:

   PS C:\> Get-Process 'com.docker.proxy'
   Get-Process : Cannot find a process with the name "com.docker.proxy". Verify the process name and call the cmdlet
   again.
   At line:1 char:1
   + Get-Process 'com.docker.proxy'
   + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
       + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (com.docker.proxy:String) [Get-Process], ProcessCommandException
       + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NoProcessFoundForGivenName,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetProcessCommand
   
   PS C:\> echo $?
   False