In this guide, I’ll walk you through a clean, step-by-step setup for running Docker Engine inside WSL2 without Docker Desktop, explain how Windows and WSL2 communicate, and share best practices for maintaining a healthy development environment.

Why Run Docker Inside WSL2?

Running Docker natively inside WSL2 has several benefits:

• No licensing issues – you avoid Docker Desktop’s commercial license requirements.
• Lightweight – no heavy virtualization layer; containers run directly inside your WSL Linux distro.
• Integrated networking – on Windows 11 with modern WSL versions,
  containers bound to localhost inside WSL are automatically reachable from Windows.
• Familiar Linux workflow – you install and use Docker exactly as you would on a regular Ubuntu server.

Step 1 – Update Ubuntu

Open your Ubuntu 24.04 terminal and ensure your system is up to date:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2 – Install Docker Engine

Install Docker using the official Docker repository:

# Install prerequisites
sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release

# Add Docker’s GPG key
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | \
  sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

# Configure Docker repository
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] \
  https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

# Install Docker Engine
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Step 3 – Run Docker Without sudo

To avoid prefixing every command with sudo, add your user to the docker group:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Restart your WSL terminal for the change to take effect, then verify:

docker --version
docker ps

Step 4 – Test Networking

One of the most common questions is:
“Will my containers be accessible from both Ubuntu and Windows?”
The answer is yes on modern Windows 11 with WSL2.
Let’s test it by running an Nginx container:

docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name webtest nginx

• Inside Ubuntu (WSL): curl http://localhost:8080
• From Windows (browser or PowerShell): http://localhost:8080

Thanks to WSL2’s localhost forwarding, Windows traffic to localhost is routed
into the WSL network, making containers instantly accessible without extra configuration.

Step 5 – Run Multi-Container Applications with Docker Compose

The Docker Compose plugin is already installed as part of the package above. Check the version:

docker compose version

Create a docker-compose.yml for a WordPress + MySQL stack:

version: "3.9"
services:
  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpass
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
      MYSQL_USER: wpuser
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: wppass
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/mysql

  wordpress:
    image: wordpress:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    environment:
      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db:3306
      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wpuser
      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: wppass
      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wordpress

volumes:
  db_data:

Start the services:

docker compose up -d

Once the containers are running, open http://localhost:8080 in your Windows browser
to access WordPress. The containers are managed entirely inside WSL2,
but networking feels seamless.

Maintenance: Cleaning Up Docker Data

Over time, Docker accumulates images, stopped containers, volumes, and networks.
This can take up significant disk space inside your WSL distribution.
Here are safe maintenance commands to keep your environment clean:

Remove Unused Objects

docker system prune -a --volumes

• -a: removes all unused images, not just dangling ones
• --volumes: also removes unused volumes

Reset Everything (Dangerous)

If you need to wipe your Docker environment completely (images, containers, volumes, networks):

docker stop $(docker ps -aq) 2>/dev/null
docker rm -f $(docker ps -aq) 2>/dev/null
docker volume rm $(docker volume ls -q) 2>/dev/null
docker network rm $(docker network ls -q) 2>/dev/null
docker image rm -f $(docker image ls -q) 2>/dev/null

⚠️ Use this only if you want to start fresh. All data will be removed.

Conclusion

By running Docker Engine directly inside WSL2, you gain a powerful, lightweight, and license-free Docker environment that integrates seamlessly with Windows 11. Your containers are accessible from both Linux and Windows, Docker Compose works out of the box, and maintenance is straightforward with prune commands.

This approach is particularly well-suited for developers who want the flexibility of Docker without the overhead of Docker Desktop. With WSL2 and Ubuntu 24.04, you get the best of both worlds: Linux-native Docker with Windows accessibility.