Neither can be used for general development. The first ( docker-desktop) is used to run the Docker engine ( dockerd) while the second ( docker-desktop-data) stores containers and images. Optionally, select any additional distributions you would like to enable the Docker-WSL integration on.ĭocker Desktop installs two special-purpose internal Linux distros docker-desktop and docker-desktop-data. WSL can run distributions in both v1 or v2 mode. However for the best developer experience, we recommend installing at least one additional distro and enabling Docker support by:Įnsure the distribution runs in WSL 2 mode. The docker CLI and UI all work fine from Windows without any additional Linux distros. WSL 2 adds support for “Linux distros” to Windows, where each distro behaves like a VM except they all run on top of a single shared Linux kernel.ĭocker Desktop does not require any particular Linux distros to be installed. Now docker commands work from Windows using the new WSL 2 engine. If you have installed Docker Desktop on a system that supports WSL 2, this option is enabled by default. Select the Use WSL 2 based engine check box. From the Docker menu, select Settings and then General.Start Docker Desktop from the Windows Start menu.

Read the information displayed on the screen and enable WSL 2 to continue. If you are running a supported system, Docker Desktop prompts you to enable WSL 2 during installation.

Follow the usual installation instructions to install Docker Desktop.

Downloaded and installed the Linux kernel update package.

For detailed instructions, refer to the Microsoft documentation.

Windows 10, version 1903 or higher, or Windows 11.

Prerequisitesīefore you turn on the Docker Desktop WSL 2, ensure you have: It takes less than 10 seconds to start the Docker daemon compared to almost a minute in the previous version of Docker Desktop. This means, Docker Desktop only uses the required amount of CPU and memory resources it needs, while enabling CPU and memory-intensive tasks such as building a container, to run much faster.Īdditionally, with WSL 2, the time required to start a Docker daemon after a cold start is significantly faster. In addition, WSL 2 provides improvements to file system sharing and boot time.ĭocker Desktop uses the dynamic memory allocation feature in WSL 2 to improve the resource consumption. With Docker Desktop running on WSL 2, users can leverage Linux workspaces and avoid maintaining both Linux and Windows build scripts.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 is a full Linux kernel built by Microsoft, which allows Linux distributions to run without managing virtual machines.

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