Windows Pre-requisites

Please check all of these carefully. In case of emergency read what to do if it all goes wrong .

IMPORTANT The instructions ask you to install docker desktop. This is the easiest way to get docker and to see your images and containers. This may also require a paid license. If this is a problem, please see

how install docker without installing docker desktop

Start here

  1. You must be running Windows 10 or Windows 11
  2. Press the Windows key, type windows features then click on the icon. Ensure that Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux are both checked as shown in the image below. If you have to check either box, then it’s REALLY important that your machine reboots after installation before proceeding to the next step.
    features
  3. You must have WSL2 (Windows subsystem for Linux) installed. Press the Windows key & type cmd. Right click on the cmd icon and select run as administrator. This is really important - installation will fail if you run it as a regular user.
  4. In the cmd window type wsl -l -v and choose one of the bullets below based on what you see on the screen:
    • SUCCESS - you should see something like this - go to the next step.
          C:\Users\bruce>wsl -l -v
      NAME                   STATE           VERSION
    * Debian                 Running         2
      Ubuntu                 Stopped         2
      docker-desktop-data    Running         2
      docker-desktop         Running         2
    • help options for wsl are displayed.
      wsl is not fully installed. execute this command:
      wsl --install --no-distribution
      When installation is complete retype wsl -l -v and choose an option.
    • wsl command not found.
      Your version of windows is old: follow these instructions from Microsoft
    • No distributions.
      if no distributions were found, go to the microsoft store and install either debian or ubuntu. Debian is lighter weight and takes less space. Ubuntu has more friendly tools and more google hits when searching for help. Instalation can also be done in the window that you have open. Choose one of these… and then type exit once you have chosen a linux username, password and seen the linux command prompt appear.
      • wsl --install Debian
      • wsl --install ubuntu
    • if your windows system reports version 1 for distributions then I strongly recommend running
      wsl --update  --no-distribution
      to get wsl version 2 so that docker works correctly. You can then update specific distributions, for example:
      wsl --set-version Debian 2
      Full upgrade instructions at Microsoft
  5. Close the cmd window
  6. Install Docker desktop

Return to run instructions

It’s all gone wrong in Windows

If it all goes wrong, then it’s best to start again. The problem might be that your cmd window wasn’t run in Administrator mode, maybe you ran out of disc space or a Windows Update was pending and interfered with the process.

To reset everything:

  1. Close all windows and running applications (except your security software)
  2. Press the Windows key, type windows features then click on the icon. Uncheck Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux. Click OK and wit for the machine to reboot. Restart the process at the top of the page.
    features