Over the last year or so there has been a reasonable amount of evolution of the best way to get Eclipse Che running on Windows. The latest set of instructions are reasonably straightforward though not a complete no-brainer. This post records my snapshot of the step-by-step install process for Eclipse Che 5.2.2 including Docker install, dead ends & false starts.
- The aim is to set up a local install of pre-built Che on Windows 10 Home Edition. Starting point, scan documentation at https://www.eclipse.org/che/docs/setup/getting-started/
- Install prerequisite Docker. Download & install ‘Docker for Windows’. Helpful error message redirects me to use Docker Toolbox.
- Download Docker Toolbox for Windows. Run installer. Requires 77.6M, and also wants to install Git. The reason it needs to install a full source control system is merely down to the fact that the Git install comes with a nicely packaged bash & terminal implementation. Nevertheless I already have git installed so no need to here.
- Install completes, use shortcut ‘Docker Quickstart Terminal’ doesn’t work as it can’t find bash.exe (The shortcut expects Git to be in a certain default location).
- Update shortcut to point at my installed version of Git’s bash.exe (after another false start trying to use Git’s bash directly, fiddling with running things as Admin, etc).
- Success & I can run docker run hello-world
- Now to the actual Eclipse Che part, try default command line
docker run -it eclipse/che start
Not so hasty there, a helpful error message tells me I’m missing a mandatory parameter.
- Add in missing parameter, try again
docker run -it --rm -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \ eclipse/che startGet another useful message about needing to mount a directory to save data:
- Create a temporary directory and rerun the command specifying a data directory. Get a warning about data folder needing to be in %userprofile% (now you tell me).
- Make a different directory and run command again
docker run -it --rm -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \ -v /c/Users/tracy/tmp:/data eclipse/che startSuccess!
- Launch up browser, point at http://192.168.99.100:8080, Eclipse Che is up and running.
Kichwa Coders 
That workflow – while seems a little bit cumbersome – is exactly what we intended for Windows. We found that when users are given the full syntax from the beginning, there would always be some sort of typo, so the evolutionary approach to introducing the syntax has lowered the failure rate.
Unfortunately, boot2docker requires that path to be a sub folder of %userprofile%, but Docker for Windows (Win 10 Professional) does not. So we choose not to disclose that subfolder is mandatory until we can detect that you are on boot2docker.
Thanks for writing this – this was very good.
Ah, good to know about the subfolder differences depending on which path you take. Yes, ultimately an evolutionary approach with good feedback is much better than a one-off hit-or-miss installer that wouldn’t necessarily cope with the different flavours/versions of Windows, etc, out there.
This is plain awesome. I was struggling to install che on windows 10 and this came to my rescue. Good Job!!!
With your article plus this entry: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40213524/using-absolute-path-with-docker-run-command-not-working
i made che installation here
thanks