Install Docker CE on WSL2 Without Docker Desktop

Originally published at recca0120.github.io After setting up WSL2, if you want to run Docker but don't want Docker Desktop (resource-heavy and requires a license), installing Docker CE directly in WSL2 is the cleaner approach. Installation Steps Update the package list and install the dependencies needed for apt to use HTTPS: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release Add Docker's official GPG key: sudo mkdir -m 0755 -p /etc/apt/keyrings curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg \ | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg Set up the Docker apt 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-get update sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io \ docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin Verify