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DDEV Installation Guide

Overview

This guide walks you through installing DDEV on Windows 11 using WSL2 to run a PHP environment with Docker.

System Requirements

Installation Steps

  1. Enable WSL2 & Virtualization
    wsl --install
    dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all
    dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:WindowsSubsystemForLinux /all
    Run in PowerShell as Administrator
  2. Install Ubuntu
    wsl --set-default-version 2
    wsl --install -d ubuntu
    Set Ubuntu as default WSL2 distro
  3. Install Docker Desktop

    Download from docker.com, enable "Use the WSL 2 based engine", and integrate with Ubuntu.

  4. Install Chocolatey & DDEV
    Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
    iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
    choco install ddev -y
  5. Configure DDEV Project
    mkdir my-php-app && cd my-php-app
    ddev config --project-type=php --docroot=. --create-docroot
  6. Start & Access
    ddev start

    Open http://my-php-app.ddev.site

    Or use PHP built-in server:

    ddev exec php -S 0.0.0.0:8000 -t .

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Consistent, containerized setup across machines
  • Quick project lifecycle (start/stop/remove)
  • Automatic URL routing (*.ddev.site)
  • Isolated environment avoids host conflicts

Cons

  • Initial setup complexity and WSL2 requirement
  • Higher resource usage (Docker containers)
  • Potential port collisions if many projects run