Resolved: Docker Not Starting with WSL2 - Here's the Fix

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Recently, I encountered an issue where Docker Desktop wasn’t starting properly on my Windows machine despite WSL2 being installed. After spending a good amount of time debugging and researching, I found the root cause and resolved it. I'm sharing this here in hopes that it might help someone else facing the same issue.



Problem: Docker Desktop was failing to start and showed errors related to WSL2 or Hyper-V, such as:

checking if isocache exists: CreateFile \\wsl$\docker-desktop-data\isocache\: The network name cannot be found.

OR

running WSL command wsl.exe --mount --bare --vhd <path-to-vhdx>: ...

The usage help output is shown instead of execution. 

Despite having WSL2 installed, Docker remained stuck or threw exceptions.

Root Cause: WSL2 was installed on the machine, but its required Windows features were not enabled.

Resolution Steps:

Here is the step-by-step guide to fix this:

✅ 1. Check if Virtualization is Enabled

  • Open Task Manager > Performance Tab > CPU

  • Ensure that Virtualization: Enabled is shown

  • If not, enable virtualization from BIOS

✅ 2. Check WSL Version

Run this command in PowerShell:

wsl --list --verbose

This will show if WSL2 is set for your distributions.

If WSL is not available or not working correctly, continue below.

✅ 3. Enable Required Windows Features

Run PowerShell as Administrator and execute:

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

Then restart your machine.

✅ 4. Uninstall Docker Completely (if already installed and stuck)

If Docker Desktop is stuck or misconfigured:

  1. Uninstall Docker from Settings > Apps

  2. Open PowerShell as Administrator and stop all Docker services:

Stop-Service com.docker.service
wsl --shutdown

  1. Remove Docker-related files:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:ProgramData\Docker"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:AppData\Docker"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LocalAppData\Docker"
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LocalAppData\DockerDesktop"

  1. Restart your machine

✅ 5. Reinstall Docker

After installation, Docker should start properly in Linux container mode.


Conclusion: If you have WSL2 installed but Docker isn't working, don't forget to enable the VirtualMachinePlatform and WSL features manually. A simple restart after that can get things back on track.


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