virtual-disk.adoc

Virtual disk for WSL2

Table of Contents

• Space savings
• What are these files
• Default locations
• How to move them
• Official documentation

Space savings

• Can be anywhere from several GB to a few dozen GB. (24 GB in my case)

What are these files

Virtual disk for Docker Desktop WSL2.

Default locations

• %LocalAppData%\Docker\wsl

How to move them

This can be easily done from the Docker Desktop GUI directly. Simply go to Settings > Resources, change the value of the Disk image location, click Apply & Restart button and wait. Docker Desktop will then shut down the Docker engine, migrate the virtual disk and start the engine again.

Important

Depending on the size of your Docker virtual disk and the speed of your physical drives, this can take several minutes. Just wait until the Docker Desktop reports that the engine is up again.

Official documentation

• Change Docker Desktop settings on Windows, "Disk image location" section.