Change Docker Default Location

Docker Desktop for Windows is great since you can switch between Linux and Windows seamlessly.

Unfortunately, during the installation, you are not offered the possibility to set the default directory. This leads to the system drive filling up sooner or later if you do a lot of experimenting.

  Following how to change the default location:

Windows

  Defautl location: %PROGRAMDATA%/Docker  

1. Stop Docker
2. Create new destination on different drive

mkdir D:\Docker_Windows

1. Add “data-root”: “D:\Docker_Windows” to C:\ProgramData\Docker\config\daemon.json
2. Start Docker

Linux

  Default location: %LOCALAPPDATA%/Docker   

1. Stop Docker
2. Shutdown all WSL distros

   wsl --shutdown
   

3. Export docker-desktop-data to tar file

   wsl --export docker-desktop-data D:\docker-desktop-data.tar
   

4. Unregister current docker-desktop-data distro

   wsl --unregister docker-desktop-data
   

5. Import docker-desktop-data distro from tar file

   wsl --import docker-desktop-data D:\Docker_WSL\data D:\docker-desktop-data.tar --version 2
   

6. Start Docker
7. Remove D:\docker-desktop-data.tar (if the import was successful)