Skip to main content
Kinsta.comCommunityOpens in a new tabMyKinstaOpens in a new tab

Windows Issues

A common issue for Windows users is slowness due to Docker using WSL instead of Hyper-V. If you have Windows 10 64-bit: Pro, Enterprise, or Education (Build 16299 or later) — you have the option to use Hyper-V, which is the most reliable way to speed up DevKinsta on Windows.

If Hyper-V isn’t an option in Turn Windows features on or off (Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off), you’ll need to upgrade Windows to Pro or another version that supports Hyper-V.

Preparing to switch

Because Docker keeps the WSL and Hyper-V database volumes separate, any databases created when WSL is enabled are not accessible once you switch to Hyper-V. To work around this, you have a couple of options:

Option 1

  1. Export the database(s) of your local site(s) in DevKinsta before switching to Hyper-V.
  2. After switching to Hyper-V, import the database(s).

Option 2

  1. Push any site(s) you have in DevKinsta to Staging (or make backups) before switching to Hyper-V.
  2. Reset Docker and completely uninstall DevKinsta so that you start fresh.
  3. Make sure Hyper-V and Containers Windows features are enabled before reinstalling DevKinsta.
  4. Pull your site(s) from Staging to DevKinsta (or restore from a backup). Note: When pulling a site from Kinsta, you can choose to pull from any environment, so make sure you’re pulling from the same Staging environment you pushed to above.

Option 3

This option is only recommended if you haven’t made any changes to your local site(s)

  1. Delete your site(s) in DevKinsta before switching to Hyper-V.
  2. After switching to Hyper-V, create your site(s) again in DevKinsta.

Making the switch to Hyper-V

There are several options for enabling Hyper-V on Windows. We’ll walk you through a common method here. For more details and other methods of enabling Hyper-V, see Microsoft’s documentation for enabling Hyper-V on Windows.

  1. Make sure DevKinsta is not running.
  2. If your version of Windows doesn’t support Hyper-V, upgrade to Windows Pro or another version that supports Hyper-V.
  3. Go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off and enable the Hyper-V and Container options.
  4. In Docker, go to Settings > General, disable the Use the WSL 2 based engine option, then click Apply & Restart.
  5. Start DevKinsta (or reinstall if you chose Option 2 above) and let it create and update containers for the new Hyper-V environment.
Was this article helpful?