Docker Desktop reports “Virtualization support not detected” on Windows 11 Enterprise after upgrade, despite VT-x enabled

[kiacoder]

Description

After upgrading to Windows 11 Enterprise, Docker Desktop became unusable even though CPU virtualization (VT-x / VT-d) was enabled in BIOS.

Docker Desktop reported:
“Virtualization support not detected”

At the same time:

• WSL2 networking was broken (apt update failed with Network unreachable)
• Docker containers could run internally but no ports were exposed to Windows
• 127.0.0.1: was unreachable
• Docker Desktop privileged helper service was not running

This was not a hardware or BIOS issue.

Reproduce

1. Install Windows 11 Home.
2. Upgrade system to Windows 11 Enterprise.
3. Reboot system.
4. Start Docker Desktop with WSL 2 backend enabled.
5. Docker Desktop reports “Virtualization support not detected”.
6. Attempt to access any published container port (e.g. -p 8080:80).
7. 127.0.0.1 is unreachable, WSL networking is broken.

Expected behavior

Docker Desktop should correctly detect available hardware virtualization after upgrading to Windows 11 Enterprise and continue to function normally.

WSL2 networking should remain functional, and published container ports should be reachable via 127.0.0.1.

docker version

Client:
 Version:           29.1.3
 API version:       1.52
 Go version:        go1.25.5
 Git commit:        f52814d
 Built:             Fri Dec 12 14:51:52 2025
 OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.55.0 (213807)
 Engine:
  Version:          29.1.3
  API version:      1.52 (minimum version 1.44)
  Go version:       go1.25.5
  Git commit:       fbf3ed2
  Built:            Fri Dec 12 14:49:51 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.2.0
  GitCommit:        1c4457e00facac03ce1d75f7b6777a7a851e5c41
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.4
  GitCommit:        v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client:
 Version:    29.1.3
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.17.1
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-ai.exe
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.30.1-desktop.1
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-buildx.exe
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.40.3-desktop.1
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-compose.exe
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.45
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-debug.exe
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-desktop.exe
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.31
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-extension.exe
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-init.exe
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.34.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-mcp.exe
  model: Docker Model Runner (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.0.2
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-model.exe
  offload: Docker Offload (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.5.33
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-offload.exe
  pass: Docker Pass Secrets Manager Plugin (beta) (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.0.21
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-pass.exe
  sandbox: Docker Sandbox (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.6.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-sandbox.exe
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-sbom.exe
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.18.3
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-scout.exe

Server:
 Containers: 2
  Running: 1
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 1
 Images: 2
 Server Version: 29.1.3
 Storage Driver: overlayfs
  driver-type: io.containerd.snapshotter.v1
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Discovered Devices:
  cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 nvidia runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 1c4457e00facac03ce1d75f7b6777a7a851e5c41
 runc version: v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 32
 Total Memory: 15.47GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 85b93497-9c46-40dc-906f-efcdd93471f8
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=npipe://\\.\pipe\docker_cli
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false
 Firewall Backend: iptables

Diagnostics ID

F3222D30-7D82-4F0B-9694-7C90C21CEBD7/20251223180707

Additional Info

Note: docker info shows HTTP/HTTPS Proxy set to http.docker.internal:3128 (may be default/corporate proxy).

[kiacoder]

For reference, the system had BIOS VT-x/VT-d enabled the whole time.

What fixed it was a full Windows virtualization stack reset + restarting Docker’s privileged helper service:

• bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
• Disable Windows features: Microsoft-Hyper-V-All, VirtualMachinePlatform, Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
• Disable VBS/Memory Integrity temporarily
• Reboot
• Re-enable those Windows features
• bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto
• Reboot
• Start Docker privileged helper service (com.docker.service) and restart Docker Desktop

After that: WSL networking + apt update worked; Docker port publishing (127.0.0.1) worked again.

[kiacoder]

During the broken state, WSL2 networking was down (apt update -> Network unreachable), and Windows could not connect to published container ports (netstat showed nothing listening).