Several users complained of getting an error 0x80370102 when they were trying to install WSL2 Ubuntu on their Windows 11 devices. Such errors mostly occur during the installation of a Linux distribution so that one can access Windows Subsystem for Linux OS.
If you are also facing this issue and are still wondering what to do next, read this tutorial to learn what causes this issue and how to fix it on Windows 11 PC.
What causes WSL2 Ubuntu won’t launch Error 0x80370102?
The “WSL2 Ubuntu won’t launch error 0x80370102” might occur when your system meets one or two of the below conditions –
- Turned ON hardware virtualization inside BIOS
- Disabled Hyper-V
- Disabled Nested Virtualization Settings
- Memory Issues (RAM size is less than required)
- Upgrading WSL from version 1.0 to 2.0 – If this is the case, wait till the update completes. Restart Windows 11/10 next, and attempt again to launch the Virtual machine.
- Unstable Windows Insider Preview – If you had recently upgraded to an unstable Windows Insider preview, this error may also occur. In order to fix this issue then, you must either downgrade to a stable version or wait for the installed operating system to become stable.
Check if Hardware Virtualization is enabled or not
To run any virtual machine on Windows 11, the hardware virtualization must remain enabled. If you are sure that this feature is disabled on your computer, skip this section, and follow the next solution. Else, check the current status of the hardware virtualization via these simple steps –
- Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys altogether to start Task Manager.
- Go to the Performances tab, select CPU and see what’s written next to Virtualization.
- If it’s enabled, virtual machines are allowed to run on your computer. In case it displays “disabled”, enable it via entering the system BIOS.
1] Enable Hardware Virtualization inside BIOS (if not already)
As stated above, hardware virtualization must remain enabled on Windows 11/10 to run any virtual machine, turn On this feature by doing the following –
- Restart Windows first and while it’s rebooting, keep pressing the boot key.
- The boot key varies from one manufacturer to another. So, check for it on the user guide that came along with the computer or simply search with the manufacturer’s name online.
- The most commonly used function keys are as follows – Del, Esc, f1, f2, or F4.
- When you boot into your system’s BIOS, look out for the CPU configuration section. You may find this under either Processor, CPU config, or Chipset.
- Search for Virtualization setting and when found, turn this feature ON. You may find this feature under different alias like AMD-V, Hyper-V, SVM, VT-X, etc.
- After you enable the virtualization setting, press F10 to save and come out of the system’s BIOS.
2] Enable Hyper-V on Windows 11
In case the error 0x80370102 occurs even after enabling the Hardware Virtualization under BIOS, the Hyper-V must have been disabled on your PC. So, enable this feature under Windows Features. Here’s how you may enable this setting on your computer –
- Press Win + S to launch the Search window.
- Type “Windows Features on or off” in the text field, and click on the top result.
- Scroll down and locate Hyper-V.
- When found, tick the checkbox available left of it.
Note: While you are inside Windows features window, make sure to enable the Virtual Machine Platform feature as well. You may locate this feature by scrolling down a little further.
- Click OK to confirm and save the current configuration.
Restart your PC next and see if this resolves the error 0x80370102 on your device.
3] Configure Nested Virtualization Settings
If you are still encountering issues while launching WSL2 Ubuntu, you should enable nested virtualization on Windows 11. This is basically a feature that allows users to run Hyper-V inside of a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM). Enabling this, one may even run a Visual Studio phone emulator on a virtual machine. This is to test configurations that may otherwise require more than one host.
Here’s how to expose virtualization settings on Windows 11 –
- First of all, turn off your virtual machine inside Hyper-V Manager.
- Right-click on the Windows icon and choose – Windows Terminal (Admin).
- The terminal will default land into the Windows PowerShell (Admin).
- Copy/paste the cmdlet provided below and press Enter –
Set-VMProcessor <VMName> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true
- That’s it, nested virtualization is now active on your computer.
Increase RAM Settings
Now that you have configured virtualization settings, make sure to increase the memory limit as well to address the error 0x80370102. Here’s what you need to do next –
- Open Hyper-V Manager and right-click on your virtual machine.
- Click Settings on the context menu.
- On the left navigation pane, select Memory.
- Modify the Startup RAM value by doubling it and uncheck the box left of “Enable Dynamic Memory”.
- Click Apply then OK to save this configuration.
Alternatively, you may also increase the RAM limit by executing the command below on Windows PowerShell (Admin) –
Get-VM MyVM | Set-VMMemory -DynamicMemoryEnabled $True -MaximumBytes 2048MB -MinimumBytes 1024MB -StartupBytes 2048MB
Note: You may alter the value next to maximum bytes, minimum bytes, or Startup bytes as per your own requirement.
After you are done modifying the Memory limit, start again your virtual machine. This time it should run perfectly okay. To launch your virtual machine, right-click on it, and hit the option – Connect.
I hope this guide helps to fix the error 0x80370102 on your Windows 11 PC.
