I have been setting up Ubuntu in WSL on windows and I want to set up docker on it. I could set it up within Ubuntu itself but I have found a few folks suggest installing Docker Desktop and getting it connected to the WSL.

So let’s try it.

Head over to https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/

And click on Download Docker Desktop

Download for Windows (in my case AMD64 works)

Make sure WSL 2 is checked and press OK.

Let it install.

Open Docker Desktop

Accept, login, etc.

Click Config

Click on General and makes sure WSL 2 based engine is selected.

Open Resources à WSL Integration

Here you should see your WSL. In my case I see Ubuntu-24.04

Turn it on and click Apply & Restart

Now from your WSL Ubuntu test it

> docker version
> docker --version

Let me start up a nagios as a test

> docker run -d \
--name nagios \
-e NAGIOSADMIN_USER="user" \
-e NAGIOSADMIN_PASS="password" \
-p 8080:80 \
--restart unless-stopped \
manios/nagios:latest