Your Guide to Nextcloud All-in-One on Windows 10 & 11

The Nextcloud All-in-One (AIO) Docker image is a straightforward way to set up a complete Nextcloud installation on Windows. It provides you with easy deployment and maintenance while allowing you to keep your data under your control.

In this blog, you will find the instructions for setting up Nextcloud AIO on Windows 10 and 11. It is compatible with PCs with an x64 CPU, at least 8GB of RAM, and 4 cores.

Before you start

First, you will need to get a public domain and be able to open ports for the guide to work. Also, make sure that you are not behind CGNAT.

Please also keep in mind that the following instructions are meant for installations without a web server or reverse proxy (like Apache or nginx) already being in place. If you want to run AIO behind a web server or reverse proxy, please refer to the corresponding documentation page.

Let’s get started!

Install Docker Desktop

1. Download Docker Desktop for Windows: https://docs.docker.com/desktop/install/windows-install/.

2. Execute the EXE file and install Docker Desktop. Click on “OK” to continue (WSL 2 is recommended).

3. Wait until you see the “Installation succeeded” screen and click on “Close and restart” to restart the PC.

4. Open Docker Desktop, then read through and accept the terms.

5. If a pop-up is displayed warning you that your WSL 2 installation is incomplete, follow the included link (https://aka.ms/wsl2kernel).

6. A page will open on which you’ll need to click on “WSL2 Linux kernel update package for x64 machines”.

7. Download the wsl_update MSI and install it.

8. Now click on “Restart” to launch Docker Desktop.

11. After a while, you might see this pop-up. You can click on “Skip tutorial”.

12. Docker Desktop is now ready and you should see the start screen.

13. Make sure that Docker Desktop launches automatically by ticking “Start Docker Desktop when you log in” in the settings.

14. Make sure to enable IPv6 support for Docker. You can follow the instructions on this documentation page.

Install AIO

After you’ve installed Docker Desktop, you can move on to installing Nextcloud AIO.

1. Open the command prompt.

2. Start AIO with the following command:

docker run ^
--sig-proxy=false ^
--name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer ^
--restart always ^
--publish 80:80 ^
--publish 8080:8080 ^
--publish 8443:8443 ^
--volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config ^
--volume //var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro ^
-e NEXTCLOUD_DATADIR="/run/desktop/mnt/host/c/ncdata" ^
ghcr.io/nextcloud-releases/all-in-one:latest

Make sure to adjust /run/desktop/mnt/host/c/ncdata to your needs. This path is equivalent to C:\ncdata on your Windows host, so you need to translate the path accordingly. The path that you enter needs to start with /run/desktop/mnt/host/. Append to that the exact location on your Windows host, e.g. c/ncdata which is equivalent to C:\ncdata.

3. Then you can open the AIO interface at https://localhost:8080.

⚠️ Always use an IP address or localhost if you access this port and not a domain, as HSTS might block access to it later.

Accept the self-signed certificate, then you should see this:

4. Click on “Open Nextcloud AIO login” and enter your password.

5. Now you should see the AIO dashboard.

6. Next, type in your public domain that you set up before starting this guide. The interface should help you figure out the exact steps. (Set up DDNS for your domain to point to your public IP and port-forward at least ports 443/tcp, 3478/udp, and 3478/tcp to your Windows machine.)

7. After you’ve set it up correctly, it should allow you to pass to the next step, where you can configure optional add-ons and the timezone. Then you can click on “Download and start containers”.

8. You should now see a spinner icon. The process will take around 10 minutes or more, depending on your internet speed.

9. When all containers are downloaded, you will see this screen showing the containers still starting, which will do the first installation for you:

10. When everything is done, you should see this screen:

11. You can now open your new Nextcloud instance and log in with your admin credentials.

12. In the “Backup and restore” section, enter a path like /run/desktop/mnt/host/c/backup and submit it. This path is equivalent to C:\backup on your Windows host, so you need to translate the path accordingly. As mentioned earlier, the path needs to start with /run/desktop/mnt/host/, so append to that the exact location on your Windows host, e.g., c/backup, which is equivalent to C:\backup.

That’s it! Now everything is set up and ready for production.

Discover more about Nextcloud All-in-One and its many options

This Nextcloud AIO manual was created by Simon Lindner, Software Engineer at Nextcloud. You can check out our podcast interview with Simon, in which he explains more about his interest in making Nextcloud and open source software accessible to everyone.

Make sure to read our guide on how to set up Community Containers, developed by the Nextcloud community, for your Nextcloud instance. With these useful features, including Caddy, Fail2ban, and Pi-hole, you can enhance your Nextcloud AIO in a couple of clicks.

For Linux users, we also have a guide on how to install Nextcloud All-in-One on Linux.