Hello. I’m a developer that just recently discovered Discourse. I’m having trouble getting a local instance of Discourse to work on my Windows 11 machine. This local instance will be used to model and edit a custom theme for future development. Method 1: I tried using Docker Desktop, but the comma…

Why not Install Discourse on Windows for development ?

If you read both you will see that the Windows guide is basically telling you to open WSL and follow the Ubuntu guide :slight_smile:. The Ubuntu guide has been reviewed recently by our team and attested to be working, and it tracks very closely what the developers here at Discourse use in day to day…

[image] resakdo22: This local instance will be used to model and edit a custom theme for future development. You’d be much better served to just use Bugs theme-component and do the work on your public instance or another standard install .

Thank you all! I actually followed the guides that Discourse provides, step by step, but clearly I’m doing something wrong! I will keep on trying, and try out the method that @pfaffman pointed out. Thanks and sorry for the newbie questions!

[image] resakdo22: Thanks and sorry for the newbie questions! Don’t be sorry for that! Every question is welcome here (bonus point if used the search before asking though :stuck_out_tongue: ). We try to keep the dev install guides up-to-date, but sometimes they aren’t. I’ve also encountered…

I'm having trouble installing a local Discourse instance on Windows 11

Support Self-hosting

Falco (Falco) July 19, 2023, 1:28pm 2

Under a WSL environment you need to follow Install Discourse on Ubuntu or Debian for Development

Topic		Replies	Views
Guide to Setting Up Discourse Development Environment - Windows 11 Self-hosting dev-install	18	3983	March 8, 2026
How can I install Discourse on Windows? Getting restarting (100) error Support dev-install	3	291	September 30, 2025
How do you install Discourse using Windows 10 Docker Desktop? Self-hosting	5	2599	May 9, 2022
How to Install Discourse on LocalHost in Windows? Self-hosting	6	6278	March 11, 2020
Install Discourse on Windows for development Developer Guides dev-install , how-to	16	74136	April 22, 2026

I'm having trouble installing a local Discourse instance on Windows 11

Related topics