Accessing and Configuring Docker Desktop Settings

--- description: Learn about and change Docker Desktop's settings keywords: settings, preferences, proxy, file sharing, resources, kubernetes, Docker Desktop, Linux, Mac, Windows title: Change your Docker Desktop settings linkTitle: Change settings aliases: - /desktop/settings/mac/ - /desktop/settings/windows/ - /desktop/settings/linux/ - /desktop/settings/ weight: 10 --- To navigate to **Settings** either: - Select the Docker menu {{< inline-image src="../images/whale-x.svg" alt="whale menu" >}} and then **Settings** - Select the **Settings** icon from the Docker Desktop Dashboard. You can also locate the `settings-store.json` file (or `settings.json` for Docker Desktop versions 4.34 and earlier) at: - Mac: `~/Library/Group\ Containers/group.com.docker/settings-store.json` - Windows: `C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Docker\settings-store.json` - Linux: `~/.docker/desktop/settings-store.json` ## General On the **General** tab, you can configure when to start Docker and specify other settings: - **Start Docker Desktop when you sign in to your computer**. Select to automatically start Docker Desktop when you sign in to your machine. - **Open Docker Dashboard when Docker Desktop starts**. Select to automatically open the dashboard when starting Docker Desktop. - **Choose theme for Docker Desktop**. Choose whether you want to apply a **Light** or **Dark** theme to Docker Desktop. Alternatively you can set Docker Desktop to **Use system settings**. - **Configure shell completions**. Automatically edits your shell configuration and gives you word completion for commands, flags, and Docker objects (such as container and volume names) when you hit `<Tab>` as you type into your terminal. For more information, see [Completion](/manuals/engine/cli/completion.md). - **Choose container terminal**. Determines which terminal is launched when opening the terminal from a container. If you choose the integrated terminal, you can run commands in a running container straight from the Docker Desktop Dashboard. For more information, see [Explore containers](/manuals/desktop/use-desktop/container.md). - **Enable Docker terminal**. Interact with your host machine and execute commands directly from Docker Desktop. - **Enable Docker Debug by default**. Check this option to use Docker Debug by default when accessing the integrated terminal. For more information, see [Explore containers](/manuals/desktop/use-desktop/container.md#integrated-terminal). - {{< badge color=blue text="Mac only" >}}**Include VM in Time Machine backups**. Select to back up the Docker Desktop virtual machine. This option is turned off by default. - **Use containerd for pulling and storing images**. Turns on the containerd image store. This brings new features like faster container startup performance by lazy-pulling images, and the ability to run Wasm applications with Docker. For more information, see [containerd image store](/manuals/desktop/features/containerd.md). - {{< badge color=blue text="Windows only" >}}**Expose daemon on tcp://localhost:2375 without TLS**. Check this option to enable legacy clients to connect to the Docker daemon. You must use this option with caution as exposing the daemon without TLS can result in remote code execution attacks. - {{< badge color=blue text="Windows only" >}}**Use the WSL 2 based engine**. WSL 2 provides better performance than the Hyper-V backend. For more information, see [Docker Desktop WSL 2 backend](/manuals/desktop/features/wsl/_index.md). - {{< badge color=blue text="Windows only" >}}**Add the `*.docker.internal` names to the host's `/etc/hosts` file (Password required)**. Lets you resolve `*.docker.internal` DNS names from both the host and your containers. - {{< badge color=blue text="Mac only" >}} **Choose Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)**. Choose the Virtual Machine Manager for creating and managing the Docker Desktop Linux VM. - Select **Docker VMM** for the latest and most performant Hypervisor/Virtual Machine Manager. This option is available only on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 12.5 or later and is currently in Beta.

This section describes how to access Docker Desktop's settings through the application menu or by locating the `settings-store.json` file. It details the configurable options available under the 'General' tab, including settings for startup behavior, theme selection, shell completions, container terminal preferences, and enabling containerd image store. Specific options are noted for Mac and Windows platforms.