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title: Kubernetes on the Desktop with Rancher Desktop
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Rancher Desktop bundles together essential tools for developing and testing cloud-native applications from your desktop.

If you're working from your local machine on apps intended for cloud environments, you normally need a lot of preparation. You need to select a container run-time, install Kubernetes and popular utilities, and possibly set up a virtual machine. Installing components individually and getting them to work together can be a time-consuming process.

To reduce the complexity, Rancher Desktop offers teams the following key features:

- Simple and easy installation on macOS, Linux and Windows operating systems.
- K3s, a ready-to-use, light-weight Kubernetes distribution.
- The ability to easily switch between Kubernetes versions.
- A GUI-based cluster dashboard powered by Rancher to explore your local cluster.
- Freedom to choose your container engine: dockerd (moby) or containerd.
- Preference settings to configure the application to suit your needs.
- Bundled tools required for your container, for Kubernetes-based development, and for operation workflows.
- Periodic updates to keep bundled tools up to date.
- Integration with popular tools/IDEs, including VS Code and Skaffold.
- Image & Registry access control.
- Support for Docker extensions.

Visit the [Rancher Desktop](https://rancherdesktop.io) website and read the [docs](https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/) to learn more.

To install Rancher Desktop on your machine, refer to the [installation guide](https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/getting-started/installation). 

## Trying Rancher on Rancher Desktop 

Rancher Desktop offers the setup and tools you need to easily try out containerized, Helm-based applications. You can get started with the Rancher Kubernetes Management platform using Rancher Desktop, by following this [how-to guide](https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/how-to-guides/rancher-on-rancher-desktop).
