Error virtualization

Docker Desktop
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Docker Desktop won’t start - Virtualization not detected (but it IS enabled!)

Hey everyone, I’m pulling my hair out here. Docker Desktop keeps failing to start with “Virtualization support not detected” but I’ve already enabled everything I can think of.

My Setup:

  • Windows 11 Home
  • Intel Core Ultra 7 155H
  • Already checked BIOS - virtualization is ON

What I’ve tried so far:

I’ve been at this for hours. First, I enabled all the Windows features through PowerShell (as admin):

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

All three commands said “operation completed successfully”. I’ve rebooted like 5 times already.

When I check if they’re actually enabled:

dism.exe /online /get-featureinfo /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

It shows: State: Enabled ✓

Same for VirtualMachinePlatform and HypervisorPlatform - all showing as Enabled.

I also checked:

bcdedit /enum | findstr hypervisorlaunchtype

Result: hypervisorlaunchtype Auto - looks good, right?

Here’s where it gets weird:

When I run wsl --status, I get:

Versión predeterminada: 2
WSL2 no es compatible con la configuración actual de la máquina.

Wait, what? It says WSL2 isn’t compatible even though VirtualMachinePlatform is enabled!

Then I tried:

wsl --list --verbose

And it says: “Subsistema de Windows para Linux no tiene distribuciones instaladas” (No distributions installed)

But I literally ran wsl --install -d Ubuntu multiple times! It says it completes successfully every time, asks me to reboot, I reboot… and then nothing. No Ubuntu installed.

The problem:
Docker Desktop in Windows Home REQUIRES WSL2 (I can’t disable “Use WSL 2 based engine” - it’s grayed out). So Docker can’t start because WSL2 isn’t actually working, even though all the features show as enabled.

I’m stuck on:

  1. Why does wsl --install -d Ubuntu say it’s successful but nothing actually installs?
  2. Why does WSL2 think virtualization isn’t enabled when it clearly is?
  3. How do I actually get a WSL2 distribution installed so Docker will work?

Has anyone else dealt with this? I’m out of ideas. Any help would be hugely appreciated!

3

Docker Desktop needs either HyperV or WSL2 for creating its virtual machine (or WSL distribution). Windows Home doesn’t have HyperV, that is why Docker Desktop was supported on Windows Home before WSL2 was added by Microsoft. That is why you have no other options.

If WSL2 doesn’t work properly on your Windows, Docker Desktop will not be able to run Linux containers.

What does this command returns from Powershell or command line?

systeminfo | findstr /B /C:"OS Name" /B /C:"OS Version" /B /C:"System Type"

Just for an attempt to recognize something that can cause the incompatibility, but you might want to ask the Microsoft Community as well

4

Small addition to @rimelek’s answer:

There is a Troubleshooting Windows Subsystem for Linux page in the docs:

Unfortunately, there are various reasons that can cause WSL to not work on a Windows installation, so there won’t be a single universal solution to fix it for everyone.

A couple of months ago, I installed WSL2 on a fresh Windows 11 system. I started by installing the latest WSL from GitHub. Then I just installed a WSL distribution using the command wsl --install --web-download -d Ubuntu. It took care of enabling the required WIndows Features, without having to specifically run the dism.exe commands you used, or use the ui to enable the features. WSL took care of all of that, and even had version 2 preconfigured.

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