Install Docker without Docker Desktop on Windows

Install Ubuntu on WSL

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

Install Docker Engine in Ubuntu

Reference https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/

# Install requirements
sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release

# Add Docker’s official GPG key
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

# setup docker repository
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

# update repositories
sudo apt update

# install Docker engine
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

Use docker command without sudo

Add current user to docker group

sudo gpasswd -a $USER docker

logout at once and open Ubuntu again.

Launch docker daemon

sudo /etc/init.d/docker start

Test

docker run hello-world