Automatically clean up docker on a windows machine?

Last updated on January 25, 2021

We use the docker system prune command to remove all stopped containers, all unused networks, all dangling images, and build caches. We gonna execute the same command from the windows scheduled task to automatically clean up docker resources.

docker system prune -f

We are going to create a Windows Scheduled task with a PowerShell script to automatically delete all stopped containers, all dangling images, all unused networks, and build caches.

The following script will setup Scheduled tasks to be run at 3 am UTC which will prune docker.

Create a .ps1 file (ex: CreateDockerPruneWtask.ps1) with the below PowerShell script

param(
    [string]$dockerPath = "C:\Program Files\Docker\docker.exe"
)

$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute $dockerPath -Argument "system prune -a -f"
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At 3am
$Principle=New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -GroupId "BUILTIN\Administrators" -RunLevel Highest
Register-ScheduledTask -Action $action -Principal $Principle -Trigger $trigger -TaskName "Docker-System-Prune" -Description "Docker System Prune"

Run the PowerShell script to create a Windows scheduled task, before running the script, please check the docker.exe file path, if needed change the path according to the docker installation.

PS C:\Users\welcome> ./CreateDockerPruneWtask.ps1 --dockerPath = "C:\Program Files\Docker\docker.exe\docker.exe"

You can verify the task in Task Scheduler. to launch Task Scheduler from PowerShell use taskschd command.