Docker Desktop won’t start on Windows, and Ubuntu installation is stuck at 0%

It may help to install and test WSL before troubleshooting Docker. In an administrator PowerShell window, run `wsl --install`, allow it to finish, and reboot if Windows asks you to. If Ubuntu still stays at 0%, the issue is likely with the WSL installation or Windows Update rather than Docker itself. Once `wsl --status` works and Ubuntu opens normally, install or restart Docker Desktop and make sure its WSL 2 integration option is enabled.

Don’t worry about learning every term at once. WSL provides a Linux environment inside Windows, and Docker uses that environment to run containers. Since your goal is to use n8n, it would be useful to have your brother help identify the exact setup he expects, because n8n can be run in several ways. Start by getting WSL and Ubuntu working by themselves, then add Docker afterward; troubleshooting all of them simultaneously makes it much harder to find the actual failure.

Since you’re on Windows, Docker Desktop commonly uses WSL 2 to run its Linux-based containers. That means Docker Desktop, WSL 2, and an Ubuntu distribution are related, but they’re separate components. First check whether hardware virtualization is enabled in your computer’s BIOS/UEFI and whether Windows virtualization features are turned on. In an administrator PowerShell window, you can also try `wsl --update` and `wsl --status`, then restart Windows before opening Docker Desktop again.