If you’re encountering the error message “Docker desktop requires a newer WSL kernel version on Windows,” don’t worry – it’s a common issue that can be easily fixed. Follow the steps below to update your WSL kernel and get Docker working again.
1. Open the Control Panel on your Windows machine
2. Click on “Programs” and then “Turn Windows features on or off”
3. Check the boxes for “Windows Subsystem For Linux”, “Windows Hypervisor Platform”, and “Virtual Machine Platform”, then click “OK”
4. Open PowerShell as an Administrator
5. Type in the command: dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart, then press Enter to enable WSL 1
6. Download the WSL 2 update from Microsoft:
7. Install the update by double-clicking on the downloaded file
8. Open PowerShell as an Administrator
9. Type in the command: wsl –set-default-version 2, then press Enter to set WSL 2 as the default version
10. Restart your computer to ensure the changes take effect
Please note that to update to WSL 2, you must be running Windows 10.
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