---
description: Understand what you can do with the Containers view on Docker Dashboard
keywords: Docker Dashboard, manage, containers, gui, dashboard, images, user manual
title: Explore the Containers view in Docker Desktop
linkTitle: Containers
weight: 10
---

The **Containers** view lists all running and stopped containers and applications. It provides a clean interface to manage the lifecycle of your containers, interact with running applications, and inspect Docker objects—including Docker Compose apps.

## Container actions

Use the **Search** field to find a specific container by name.

From the **Containers** view you can:
- Start, stop, pause, resume, or restart containers
- View image packages and CVEs
- Delete containers
- Open the application in VS code
- Open the port exposed by the container in a browser
- Copy the `docker run` command for reuse or modification
- Use [Docker Debug](#execdebug)

## Resource usage

From the **Containers** view you can monitor your containers' CPU and memory usage over time. This can help you understand if something is wrong with your containers or if you need to allocate additional resources. 

When you [inspect a container](#inspect-a-container), the **Stats** tab displays further information about a container's resource utilization. You can see how much CPU, memory, network and disk space your container is using over time.

## Inspect a container

You can obtain detailed information about the container when you select it.

From here, you can use the quick action buttons to perform various actions such as pause, resume, start or stop, or explore the **Logs**, **Inspect**, **Bind mounts**, **Debug**, **Files**, and **Stats** tabs. 

### Logs

Select **Logs** to view output from the container in real time. While viewing logs, you can:

- Use `Cmd + f`/`Ctrl + f` to open the search bar and find specific entries.
  Search matches are highlighted in yellow.
- Press `Enter` or `Shift + Enter` to jump to the next or previous search match
  respectively. 
- Use the **Copy** icon in the top right-hand corner to copy all the logs to
  your clipboard.
- Show timestamps
- Use the **Clear terminal** icon in the top right-hand corner to clear the
  logs terminal. 
- Select and view external links that may be in your logs. 

You can refine your view by:

- Filtering logs for specific containers, if you're running a multi-container application.
- Using regular expressions or exact match search terms

### Inspect

Select **Inspect** to view low-level information about the container. It displays the local path, version number of the image, SHA-256, port mapping, and other details.

### Exec/Debug

If you have not enabled Docker Debug in settings, the **Exec** tab displays. It lets you quickly run commands within your running container.

Using the **Exec** tab is the same as running one of the following commands:

- `docker exec -it <container-id> /bin/sh`
- `docker exec -it <container-id> cmd.exe` when accessing Windows containers

For more details, see the [`docker exec` CLI reference](/reference/cli/docker/container/exec/).

If you have enabled Docker Debug in settings, or toggled on **Debug mode** to the right of the tab options, the **Debug** tab displays. 

Debug mode has several advantages, such as:

- A customizable toolbox. The toolbox comes with many standard Linux tools
  pre-installed, such as `vim`, `nano`, `htop`, and `curl`. For more details, see the [`docker debug` CLI reference](/reference/cli/docker/debug/).
- The ability to access containers that don't have a shell, for example, slim or
  distroless containers.

To use debug mode:

- Hover over your running container and under the **Actions** column, select the **Show container actions**
menu. From the drop-down menu, select **Use Docker Debug**.
- Or, select the container and then select the **Debug** tab. 

To use debug mode by default, navigate to
the **General** tab in **Settings** and select the **Enable Docker Debug by
default** option.

### Files

Select **Files** to explore the filesystem of running or stopped containers. You
can also:

- See which files have been recently added, modified, or deleted
- Edit a file straight from the built-in editor
- Drag and drop files and folders between the host and the container
- Delete unnecessary files when you right-click on a file
- Download files and folders from the container straight to the host

## Additional resources

- [What is a container](/get-started/docker-concepts/the-basics/what-is-a-container.md)
- [Run multi-container applications](/get-started/docker-concepts/running-containers/multi-container-applications.md)
