# Using Docker Desktop to manage a Container

> Learn how to manage a Docker container with Docker Desktop, using its dashboard to start, stop, and restart it, open a CLI, and view logs and stats.

Author: Flavio Copes | Published: 2020-07-12 | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/docker-desktop-manage-container/

Once you start a [Docker container](https://flaviocopes.com/docker-containers/), if you go and click the Docker icon in the toolbar and choose Dashboard, you will see it in Docker Desktop:

![Docker Desktop dashboard showing a running docker-tutorial container](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_10.51.31.png)

Now if you hover the container with the mouse, you will see 5 buttons:

![Docker Desktop container with management buttons visible on hover: open in browser, CLI, stop, restart, delete](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_10.54.19.png)

They are:

- Open in browser
- CLI
- Stop
- Restart
- Delete

You can manage your container lifecycle through them. 

Clicking a container name in the list will reveal more data, including a Logs manager:

![Docker Desktop logs tab showing container output with configuration and startup messages](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_12.14.49.png)

An inspector that tells you useful information about the container:

![Docker Desktop inspect tab showing environment variables, nginx version, and port mappings](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_12.14.51.png)

And stats about the container CPU, Memory, Network and Disk usage:

![Docker Desktop stats tab showing CPU usage at 0.00%, memory usage at 5.3 MB, and network/disk usage stats](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_12.14.54.png)

Go back and click the Open in browser button and the `http://localhost/tutorial` URL will open (`http://localhost` redirects to `http://localhost/tutorial` in this app):

![Browser showing Docker tutorial Getting Started page at localhost/tutorial with command explanations](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_11.14.15.png)

This is the content of a website that's provided by our sample image. Now go back to Docker Desktop and press the Stop button 

![Docker Desktop showing stopped container with grayed out status and management buttons](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_11.15.16.png)

and refresh the page, it does not work any more:

![Browser error page showing site cannot be reached at localhost with ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_11.14.38.png)

Go back to Docker Desktop and press the **Start** button, it will work again.

Try pressing the CLI button. A new terminal window will open and you will automatically be connected to the Docker Container, as the `root` user:

![Terminal window connected to Docker container showing root user prompt after running whoami command](https://flaviocopes.com/images/docker-desktop-manage-container/Screen_Shot_2020-07-05_at_11.18.24.png)

In the above picture the `whoami` command returns the current user name.