I must choose between Docker and VirtualBox

Maybe you’ve come across the Docker error above before in a Windows environment.

Hardware assisted virtualization and data execution protection must be enabled in the BIOS.  See https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/troubleshoot/#virtualization
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

If you check the link provided by the error, you’ll come across a few different fixes; primarily enabling virtualization. I happen to know for a fact that virtualization is already enabled in my BIOS

What’s most frustrating is that Docker’s documentation doesn’t actually have the fix, my fix, and a fix that might apply to anyone who’s a big enough nerd to be on this page now.

It comes to down to Hyper-V. When docker is installed it’s reliant on Hyper-v, Window’s proprietary virtualization technology, to work.

Ok, so enable Hyper-v, smart guy

And the fix is that easy, if you’re coming across this. Here’s what you’d run in a Powershell window (as admin) to fix the problem

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto
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That’s it. There’s a potential fix to your problem if you’re in this mess. Word to the wise: this requires a restart of Windows to take effect.

Here’s where the plot thickens for me. I disabled Hyper-V shortly after I installed Docker. The reason being when Hyper-V is enabled, my VirtualBox VM’s run incredibly slow. A little on-the-nose turtle icon is displayed at the bottom of VirtualBox when this happens

It took me hours to figure out why my VM’s were so slow. I came across a thread much like the one linked in the caption of the previous image, which recommended disabling Hyper-V and voila, problem solved. And here’s that Powershell code if you’re having that problem: (again, as admin)

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Though this puts me in an impractical situation: I always have to choose between using Docker containers or V-box VM’s at any given time. Or at best having a painfully slow VirtualBox VM and fully functional Docker.

As a full stack developer, even as a hobbyist, I tend to use both environments. If the fix were just as simple as running the command, I wouldn’t even complain. Just run a batch file or something as needed.

A solution I’ve thought that might remove some of this headache is to only run VirtualBox, and create a VM that runs Docker containers. That presents a host of other problems and it would be more convenient to run a Docker container locally via VS Code. Maybe VMWare doesn’t have the problem?

Anyway I’ve mused on this too long. For now I’ll be switching around as needed 🙄