How to Build a Python Development Environment on Windows with Docker

Windows users often struggle with Python development due to pip errors and library installation issues.

Instead of using a VM, you can run an Ubuntu container on Windows with Docker to create a clean Python environment.

Prerequisites

Windows version that supports Hyper‑V (Windows 10 or later)

Enable Virtualization in BIOS

Install Docker for Windows

Download the installer from the official Docker site, run it, and verify the installation with docker --version.

Pull and run an Ubuntu image

Pull the Ubuntu 18.04 image and start a container:

docker pull ubuntu:18.04
docker run -it ubuntu:18.04 bash

Configure the container

Replace the default apt sources with a faster mirror, update the package list, and install common tools and Python 3.6:

apt update
apt install iputils-ping wget net-tools vim
apt install python3.6
ln -s /usr/bin/python3.6 /usr/bin/python
apt install python3-pip

Customize Vim

Create a ~/.vimrc with preferred settings (example shown).

Commit the customized image

Exit the container, list containers with docker ps -a, then commit the changes:

docker commit <container_id> shenzhongqiang/python-dev:version1

Now you have a reusable image ( shenzhongqiang/python-dev:version1) that can be pulled and run directly:

docker pull shenzhongqiang/python-dev:version1
docker run -it shenzhongqiang/python-dev:version1 bash

Remember to commit any further changes to keep the image up‑to‑date.