Installing Mastodon on Windows 11

Mastodon is an open-source social media platform that you can run on your own server. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation process of Mastodon on Windows 11.

Prerequisites

• Windows 11 operating system
• Docker installed
• Git installed

Steps

1. Open Command Prompt by searching in the Start Menu or pressing 'Windows Key + R' and typing cmd.

2. Clone the Mastodon repository by running the command:

git clone https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon.git

3. Navigate to the newly created 'mastodon' directory by running the command:

cd mastodon

4. Copy the sample environment file by running the command:

cp .env.production.sample .env.production

5. Open '.env.production' in a text editor of your choice and modify the following variables with your own values:

• LOCAL_DOMAIN with your website's domain name
• LOCAL_HTTPS with the value true if you are using HTTPS on your website
• SMTP_* with your mail server configuration

6. Generate your secret key base by running the command:

rake secret

Copy the generated value and paste it in the SECRET_KEY_BASE variable in '.env.production'.

7. Build the Mastodon image using the command:

docker build -t tootsuite/mastodon .

8. To create a PostgreSQL container, run the following command:

docker run --name postgres -e POSTGRES_DB=mastodon_production -e POSTGRES_USER=postgres -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres -d postgres:9.6-alpine

9. Create a configuration file for Mastodon by running the command:

docker run --rm tootsuite/mastodon rake mastodon:setup

10. Create a Mastodon container by running the command:

docker run --name mastodon -d --link postgres:postgres -p 3000:3000 tootsuite/mastodon

11. You can now access your Mastodon server by opening a web browser and navigating to http://localhost:3000.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed Mastodon on your Windows 11 machine using Docker.

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!

Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!