Rancher Desktop 1.24

This is the 1.24.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

⚠️ Auto-Update: If Rancher Desktop shows an error instead of a Restart Now button, install this release manually from the links below. On 1.23.0 and 1.23.1, the auto-update download fails the moment it starts, so it can't get to 1.24.0. This release fixes the updater, so from 1.24.0 onwards auto-updates install the way they should.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

New Contributors

Thank you to our new contributor: @voidmatcha!

Release Notes for 1.24.0

What's New

The interface speaks eight more languages

Pick your language under Preferences > Application > General. Along with English, you can choose Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian) and Spanish.

The feature is experimental and English is still the default. AI tools produced all eight translations for this first release. We've run the app in several of them, but we haven't checked every string, so expect some awkward wording as English remains the canonical text and a handful of strings still fall back to it. Feedback from native speakers would be welcome. If something reads wrong, please open an issue.

The translations cover the main application window and the Preferences dialog. The Cluster Dashboard remains English only.

Numbers, dates and times are ignored; dates and times follow your operating system's language instead and relative times such as "3 minutes ago" on the Diagnostics page continue to be in English. (#10688)

Recent blog posts on the General page

The General page now shows a Recent blog posts section. Each entry shows the post's title, date, opening paragraph and a Read more link.

Making room for that meant dropping three things you can already find elsewhere:

1. The status bar shows the version and the network status
2. Preferences has the telemetry checkbox
3. The auto-update checkbox moved up beside the heading

Bug Fixes

Auto-update never downloaded anything on 1.23.0 and 1.23.1

The auto-updater failed in versions 1.23.0 and 1.23.1 because the download runs in the updater you already have installed (see note above). (#10614)

macOS: factory reset left a downloaded update behind

rdctl factory-reset left a downloaded update in place, so the next launch installed it anyway, which undid the reset you just performed. (#10658)

VMs created by Rancher Desktop 1.13 or earlier failed to start

A virtual machine created by Rancher Desktop 1.13 or earlier refused to start after an upgrade to 1.23. Those VMs boot again with their data intact. (#10610)

Container Logs and Shell terminals collapsed when zoomed

Changing the zoom level in a container's Logs or Shell tab shrank the terminal until only a single row remained and it stayed that way. The terminal now keeps its full height across zoom levels. (#10543)

Extensions saw container names missing their first character

ddClient.docker.listContainers() dropped the leading / that the Docker Engine API puts on every container name. An extension that strips the slash itself then took a real character with it, which is why Logs Explorer showed every name missing its first letter. Names now match what the Engine API returns. (#6453)

One side effect slipped through: the Containers page now shows that leading slash in the name column. We will drop it from the display in the next release. (#10717)

Wasm containers failed to create under Kubernetes

containerd 2.1 and later stopped unpacking non-host platforms during an image pull, so containers with a Wasm runtime class failed with an error about a missing parent snapshot. Wasm images now unpack again. (#10524)

Windows: some nerdctl options mangled host paths

Several nerdctl options carrying a host path reached the Linux side untranslated, among them builder build --output and --secret, container exec --env-file, image decrypt --key, and image pull --cosign-key. Rancher Desktop now translates the paths in all of them. (#10567)

Windows: the WSL distribution check could report an error

Diagnostics looks for WSL distributions known to cause trouble with Rancher Desktop. That check ran wsl.exe with almost none of its environment, so it could report an error instead of a result. It gets a full environment now. Thanks to @voidmatcha! (#10557)

Updates to Bundled Utilities (from Rancher Desktop 1.23.0)

• docker 29.5.3 → 29.6.2
• docker-compose 5.1.4 → 5.3.1
• docker-buildx 0.34.1 → 0.35.0
• helm 4.2.1 → 4.2.3
• trivy 0.71.1 → 0.72.0
• spin 4.0.0 → 4.0.2
• spin-shim 0.24.0 → 0.25.1
• cert-manager 1.20.1 → 1.21.0

Unchanged:

• nerdctl 2.2.2
• docker-credential-helpers 0.9.8
• kuberlr 0.7.0
• amazon-ecr-credential-helper 0.12.0
• spin-operator 0.6.1

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.23.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.24.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.23.1

This is the 1.23.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Rancher Desktop 2.0 Alpha 1 is available

The first alpha of Rancher Desktop 2.0 is out: a ground-up rewrite that runs with or without the GUI and installs alongside Rancher Desktop without touching it. It is an early tech preview, not for production. For what it is and how to try it, see Welcome to Rancher Desktop 2.0 on our blog.

New Contributors

Thank you to our new contributors: @linghengqian, @endemics, @cm-iwata, @maximumschmidt, @immanuwell, @officialasishkumar, and @edwinbalani!

Release Notes for 1.23.1

Kubernetes portforwarding on macOS and Linux has been fixed

In the 1.23.0 release Kubernetes port were not being forwarded to the host. This has been fixed.

Release Notes for 1.23.0

What's New

Dark mode preference

Rancher Desktop now lets you choose between dark, light, and system themes under Preferences > Behavior. Previous versions always followed the OS theme. (#5905)

Container dashboard improvements

Thanks to @endemics, the container detail page now includes a Shell tab that opens an interactive terminal session inside a running container. The session persists across tab switches, so you can check logs and return to your shell without losing context. (#9925)

@endemics also added an Inspect tab that displays key container metadata pulled from docker inspect: name, image, IP address, creation date, and collapsible sections for mounts, environment variables, commands and arguments, capabilities, ports, and labels. (#9986)

A Stats tab, also from @endemics, shows live CPU, memory, network, and disk I/O charts for a running container, plus a table of its processes. The refresh interval defaults to one second, with 5-second, 20-second, 30-second, and 1-minute options; collection stops when you leave the tab. (#9987)

Separately, @officialasishkumar added a Restart action to the Containers list for running containers, available for single containers or bulk selections. The table refreshes once the restart completes. (#10224)

Dynamic ports for the Cluster Dashboard

The Cluster Dashboard's API server used to bind to a fixed port (9443) and failed to start when another program already used it. It now picks an available port automatically at startup. (#1890)

Windows: proxy bypass for domains and wildcards

The no-proxy list now supports domain names and wildcard patterns (e.g. *.example.com) in addition to IP addresses and CIDR subnets. (#9803)

AI Workbench extension

The bundled Open WebUI extension has been renamed to AI Workbench and updated to version 0.2.0. AI Workbench provides a local web interface for interacting with large language models running in containers, letting you experiment with AI workloads directly from Rancher Desktop.

Installed extension details

Thanks to @officialasishkumar, the Installed extensions table now shows each extension's vendor, description, and a More information link, drawn from the metadata the extension already publishes. (#8698)

Improved macOS disk image installer

Thanks to @maximumschmidt, the macOS disk image now guides installation: a lasso wraps the Rancher Desktop icon and points it toward the Applications folder, under a "Drag to Applications to install" instruction. The Finder volume title reads "Install Rancher Desktop …" so it names the action rather than the product. (#10194)

Bug Fixes

macOS and Linux: could fail to start after an unclean shutdown

After an unclean shutdown, such as a host crash or force-quit, Rancher Desktop could refuse to start because a leftover virtual-machine process confused its startup checks. Rancher Desktop now clears the leftover process and starts normally. (#7760)

Windows: startup could fail after many launches

After Rancher Desktop had been started many times, it could stop starting altogether: each launch added a certificate to the VM's trust store — once that store filled past a fixed limit, certificate setup failed and blocked startup. Rancher Desktop now removes stale certificates before adding new ones. Thanks to @cm-iwata! (#9929)

Windows: running other-architecture binaries could stop working

Starting Rancher Desktop could disable support for running binaries built for other architectures (WSLInterop) — not only inside Rancher Desktop, but in your other WSL distributions too. Rancher Desktop now leaves those registrations alone. (#10049)

Windows: host-network containers could shadow published ports

A container run with --network=host and listening on 127.0.0.1 could hijack a port that another container had published with -p, or that a Kubernetes hostPort used — leaving the published port unreachable from Windows, or sending its traffic to the wrong container. Published ports and host-network ports no longer collide. (#10357)

Windows: slow clients could get corrupted Docker API responses

A program reading from the Docker API slowly could receive a corrupted response, because the proxy sometimes inserted stray bytes into the stream. The proxy no longer corrupts responses. Thanks to @linghengqian! (#9499)

Windows: docker compose down --volumes ignored

docker compose down --volumes (and its -v shorthand) did not remove the named volumes. Both flags now work as expected. Thanks to @officialasishkumar! (#10096)

docker cp failed on a created-but-not-started container

docker cp failed when copying files to or from a container that had been created but not yet started. Copying now works for created containers as well. Thanks to @edwinbalani! (#1544, #9787)

Windows: no-proxy list could not be edited

The no-proxy list could not be edited: adding an entry failed with an error and corrupted the saved setting. It now works correctly. (#9803)

Linux: rdctl used the wrong configuration in the AppImage

On native Linux, the AppImage mistook itself for a WSL environment, so rdctl looked for its configuration in the wrong place and could not reach Rancher Desktop. rdctl now reads the correct configuration on Linux. Thanks to @linghengqian! (#9789)

Container logs showed errors with the dockerd engine

With the dockerd (moby) engine, the container log view showed spurious error messages mixed in with the logs. The logs now display cleanly. Thanks to @endemics! (#9934)

Ctrl+C didn't copy container logs

In the read-only container log view, Ctrl+C was intercepted as an interrupt instead of copying text. Ctrl+C now copies the selected text to the clipboard. (#9788)

Auto-update could silently stop working

Two problems could leave Rancher Desktop quietly unable to find new versions: a single failed check disabled all later checks until the next restart, and a bad response from the update server was cached for about a day, so every check kept failing. Update checks now recover from both on their own. (#10019, #10359)

Security

Updated containerd from 2.2.0 to 2.2.5, fixing five security advisories in its CRI plugin:

• CVE-2026-50195 (critical): a CRI checkpoint import could poison a node's local image cache under an attacker-chosen tag.
• CVE-2026-53488 (critical): a label in a pulled image could trigger command execution on the host.
• CVE-2026-53492 (critical): a CRI checkpoint restore could inject arbitrary CDI configuration into the restored container.
• [CVE-2026-53489](https://github.com/...

Rancher Desktop 1.23

This is the 1.23.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Rancher Desktop 2.0 Alpha 1 is available

The first alpha of Rancher Desktop 2.0 is out: a ground-up rewrite that runs with or without the GUI and installs alongside Rancher Desktop without touching it. It is an early tech preview, not for production. For what it is and how to try it, see Welcome to Rancher Desktop 2.0 on our blog.

New Contributors

Thank you to our new contributors: @linghengqian, @endemics, @cm-iwata, @maximumschmidt, @immanuwell, @officialasishkumar, and @edwinbalani!

Release Notes for 1.23.0

What's New

Dark mode preference

Rancher Desktop now lets you choose between dark, light, and system themes under Preferences > Behavior. Previous versions always followed the OS theme. (#5905)

Container dashboard improvements

Thanks to @endemics, the container detail page now includes a Shell tab that opens an interactive terminal session inside a running container. The session persists across tab switches, so you can check logs and return to your shell without losing context. (#9925)

@endemics also added an Inspect tab that displays key container metadata pulled from docker inspect: name, image, IP address, creation date, and collapsible sections for mounts, environment variables, commands and arguments, capabilities, ports, and labels. (#9986)

A Stats tab, also from @endemics, shows live CPU, memory, network, and disk I/O charts for a running container, plus a table of its processes. The refresh interval defaults to one second, with 5-second, 20-second, 30-second, and 1-minute options; collection stops when you leave the tab. (#9987)

Separately, @officialasishkumar added a Restart action to the Containers list for running containers, available for single containers or bulk selections. The table refreshes once the restart completes. (#10224)

Dynamic ports for the Cluster Dashboard

The Cluster Dashboard's API server used to bind to a fixed port (9443) and failed to start when another program already used it. It now picks an available port automatically at startup. (#1890)

Windows: proxy bypass for domains and wildcards

The no-proxy list now supports domain names and wildcard patterns (e.g. *.example.com) in addition to IP addresses and CIDR subnets. (#9803)

AI Workbench extension

The bundled Open WebUI extension has been renamed to AI Workbench and updated to version 0.2.0. AI Workbench provides a local web interface for interacting with large language models running in containers, letting you experiment with AI workloads directly from Rancher Desktop.

Installed extension details

Thanks to @officialasishkumar, the Installed extensions table now shows each extension's vendor, description, and a More information link, drawn from the metadata the extension already publishes. (#8698)

Improved macOS disk image installer

Thanks to @maximumschmidt, the macOS disk image now guides installation: a lasso wraps the Rancher Desktop icon and points it toward the Applications folder, under a "Drag to Applications to install" instruction. The Finder volume title reads "Install Rancher Desktop …" so it names the action rather than the product. (#10194)

Bug Fixes

macOS and Linux: could fail to start after an unclean shutdown

After an unclean shutdown, such as a host crash or force-quit, Rancher Desktop could refuse to start because a leftover virtual-machine process confused its startup checks. Rancher Desktop now clears the leftover process and starts normally. (#7760)

Windows: startup could fail after many launches

After Rancher Desktop had been started many times, it could stop starting altogether: each launch added a certificate to the VM's trust store — once that store filled past a fixed limit, certificate setup failed and blocked startup. Rancher Desktop now removes stale certificates before adding new ones. Thanks to @cm-iwata! (#9929)

Windows: running other-architecture binaries could stop working

Starting Rancher Desktop could disable support for running binaries built for other architectures (WSLInterop) — not only inside Rancher Desktop, but in your other WSL distributions too. Rancher Desktop now leaves those registrations alone. (#10049)

Windows: host-network containers could shadow published ports

A container run with --network=host and listening on 127.0.0.1 could hijack a port that another container had published with -p, or that a Kubernetes hostPort used — leaving the published port unreachable from Windows, or sending its traffic to the wrong container. Published ports and host-network ports no longer collide. (#10357)

Windows: slow clients could get corrupted Docker API responses

A program reading from the Docker API slowly could receive a corrupted response, because the proxy sometimes inserted stray bytes into the stream. The proxy no longer corrupts responses. Thanks to @linghengqian! (#9499)

Windows: docker compose down --volumes ignored

docker compose down --volumes (and its -v shorthand) did not remove the named volumes. Both flags now work as expected. Thanks to @officialasishkumar! (#10096)

docker cp failed on a created-but-not-started container

docker cp failed when copying files to or from a container that had been created but not yet started. Copying now works for created containers as well. Thanks to @edwinbalani! (#1544, #9787)

Windows: no-proxy list could not be edited

The no-proxy list could not be edited: adding an entry failed with an error and corrupted the saved setting. It now works correctly. (#9803)

Linux: rdctl used the wrong configuration in the AppImage

On native Linux, the AppImage mistook itself for a WSL environment, so rdctl looked for its configuration in the wrong place and could not reach Rancher Desktop. rdctl now reads the correct configuration on Linux. Thanks to @linghengqian! (#9789)

Container logs showed errors with the dockerd engine

With the dockerd (moby) engine, the container log view showed spurious error messages mixed in with the logs. The logs now display cleanly. Thanks to @endemics! (#9934)

Ctrl+C didn't copy container logs

In the read-only container log view, Ctrl+C was intercepted as an interrupt instead of copying text. Ctrl+C now copies the selected text to the clipboard. (#9788)

Auto-update could silently stop working

Two problems could leave Rancher Desktop quietly unable to find new versions: a single failed check disabled all later checks until the next restart, and a bad response from the update server was cached for about a day, so every check kept failing. Update checks now recover from both on their own. (#10019, #10359)

Security

Updated containerd from 2.2.0 to 2.2.5, fixing five security advisories in its CRI plugin:

• CVE-2026-50195 (critical): a CRI checkpoint import could poison a node's local image cache under an attacker-chosen tag.
• CVE-2026-53488 (critical): a label in a pulled image could trigger command execution on the host.
• CVE-2026-53492 (critical): a CRI checkpoint restore could inject arbitrary CDI configuration into the restored container.
• CVE-2026-53489 (high): a symlink in a checkpoint image could expose arbitrary host files through kubectl logs.
• [CVE-2026-47262](https://github.co...

Rancher Desktop 1.22.3

This is the 1.22.3 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Release Notes for 1.22.3

Rancher Desktop 1.22.3 is a security-focused patch release. We strongly recommend upgrading.

Security Fixes

Important

macOS and Linux: additional steps required after upgrading.
A bug in the ISO version comparison means an in-place upgrade from any earlier 1.22.x release will keep booting the previous kernel, leaving the modules listed below in place. Choose one of these to apply the container-escape mitigation:

• Manual kernel upgrade (preserves your data): follow the steps in #10288.
• Factory reset: run Troubleshooting → Factory Reset after upgrading. This removes all containers, images, and Kubernetes state — back up anything you need to keep first.

Windows is not affected: the mitigation ships in the application binary and applies on the next start.

Container escape mitigation (CVE-2026-31431, CVE-2026-43284, CVE-2026-43500)

Three recent Linux kernel exploits — copy.fail (CVE-2026-31431) and the two dirtyfrag variants (CVE-2026-43284, CVE-2026-43500) — let unprivileged processes gain a page-cache write primitive and tamper with files outside their normal reach. Inside Rancher Desktop, that means an attacker with code execution in any container could escape that scope and modify the rest of the VM.

Each exploit needs a specific Linux kernel module loaded. Rancher Desktop now removes those modules, so the exploits have nothing to hook into.

Modules removed:

Module	Used for	CVE it enables
esp4 / esp6	IPsec ESP (site-to-site VPN gateways, e.g. strongSwan, libreswan)	CVE-2026-43284 (dirtyfrag, XFRM ESP)
rxrpc	RxRPC protocol, used almost exclusively by AFS / kAFS (Andrew File System)	CVE-2026-43500 (dirtyfrag, AF_RXRPC)
algif_aead	Kernel AEAD crypto via AF_ALG sockets (offload to hardware accelerators)	CVE-2026-31431 (copy.fail)

What this means for you: unless you run an IPsec VPN endpoint or an AFS client, the removal is invisible to you.

On macOS and Linux, the rebuilt Alpine VM image omits the modules. (#10220, #10248)

On Windows, WSL2 provides kernel modules through a single overlay shared by every WSL distro running on the host, which means:

• When Rancher Desktop starts, it removes these modules for all running WSL distros, not just its own. Other distros will lose IPsec ESP, AFS, and AF_ALG until WSL itself restarts.
• When WSL restarts (e.g. wsl --shutdown followed by launching any distro), the upstream WSL kernel restores the modules.
• The next time Rancher Desktop starts, it removes them again.

This is an "apply-on-start" / "forget-on-stop" lifecycle: Rancher Desktop never persists changes to your WSL installation. (#10247)

The bundled Alpine VM image also picks up a newer kernel containing additional upstream security patches.

Bug Fixes

Bind mounts via the Docker --mount flag on Windows

In Rancher Desktop 1.22.2, docker run --mount type=bind,... on Windows could mount the wrong directory or fail to start the container. This release restores correct bind-mount behavior; the -v /path:/path shorthand stayed correct throughout. (#10252)

Release Notes for 1.22.2

Rancher Desktop 1.22.2 is a patch release fixing a critical bug on macOS (and maybe on Linux). It contains no further changes beyond the following 2 items:

Fixed data volume mount on macOS

Under certain conditions, the data volume failed to mount on macOS. In that case, all data was stored in a RAM disk, which is limited to the amount of memory allocated to the VM (usually 6GB). This resulted in early out-of-memory errors when building or pulling images.

When Rancher Desktop was restarted, all data from the current session was lost because it was never written to disk. Theoretically, this could also have happened on Linux, but it has only been reported in macOS (#9754 and #10133)

Upgrade trivy 0.68.2 → 0.70.0

This upgrade also includes an upgrade to trivy 0.70.0 because the 0.68.2 version is no longer available for download. There are no known issues with 0.68.2; it just is no longer accessible.

Release Notes for 1.22.1

The 1.22.1 release did not fix the bug it was supposed to fix and was replaced with Rancher Desktop 1.22.2.

Release Notes for 1.22.0

What's New

Select moby storage driver

Version 1.21.0 switched to the containerd-snapshotter storage driver by default. On Windows, this happened unconditionally (even on upgrades), which made existing images inaccessible.

Users can now choose between the classic and containerd-snapshotter storage drivers via rdctl:

rdctl set --container-engine.moby-storage-driver classic
rdctl set --container-engine.moby-storage-driver snapshotter

Rancher Desktop automatically selects the driver based on where your existing images are stored. See Migrating Images for instructions on moving images between storage drivers. Windows users affected by the 1.21.0 issue can switch back to the classic driver to regain access to their images. (#9732)

Docker 29 in the VM

Alpine Linux has been updated to version 3.23, which includes Docker 29. This fixes issues with docker inspect returning incomplete image metadata. (#9671, #9739)

Kubernetes Dashboard improvements

Pod log streaming now works in the Dashboard. This was broken since version 1.6.0. (#3212)

The Dashboard button now waits until the Steve API server accepts connections before becoming active. Previously, clicking the button too quickly after Kubernetes started would show a spinner that never resolved. (#8217)

The non-functional "Download KubeConfig" and "Kubectl Shell" buttons have been removed from the cluster dashboard. (#2208, #8151, #8757)

Docker Compose 5.0

Docker Compose has been updated to version 5.0. Key changes include:

• Compose can now be used as an SDK for third-party integrations
• The internal builder has been removed; builds are delegated to Docker Bake
• Hooks now run on restart
• New --wait option for the start command

Helm 4.0

Helm has been updated to version 4.0. See the Helm 4.0 release notes for details on the changes.

Diagnostics

Moby image store check

A new diagnostic reports when images exist in the inactive image store (classic vs. containerd-snapshotter), helping identify which images need migration. (#9733)

Windows: wsl-vpnkit detection

A new diagnostic warns when the wsl-vpnkit distribution is present, as it can cause networking issues with Rancher Desktop. (#9623)

Bug Fixes

macOS CA management with multiple keychains

Fixed a bug where certificates from multiple keychains were being written to the same file path, causing only the last keychain's certificates to be processed. (#9755)

K3s version channel labels not updating

Fixed an issue where version channel labels (e.g, stable, latest, v1.xx) were not removed from old versions when they moved to newer versions, causing multiple patch versions to appear in the recommended list. (#9709)

K3s image loading for older versions

Made the --all-platforms flag optional when loading K3s images, so older K3s versions (before 1.31) load images correctly. (#9708, #9710)

rdctl info works after upgrade

Fixed an issue where rdctl info failed with a BusyBox error for users who upgraded from version 1.19.3 or earlier, or restored an old snapshot. The 1.21.0 release notes mentioned a manual workaround; this is no longer needed. (#9546, #9554)

Containers page error handling

Fixed an "[object ...

Rancher Desktop 1.22.2

This is the 1.22.2 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Release Notes for 1.22.2

Rancher Desktop 1.22.2 is a patch release fixing a critical bug on macOS (and maybe on Linux). It contains no further changes beyond the following 2 items:

Fixed data volume mount on macOS

Under certain conditions, the data volume failed to mount on macOS. In that case, all data was stored in a RAM disk, which is limited to the amount of memory allocated to the VM (usually 6GB). This resulted in early out-of-memory errors when building or pulling images.

When Rancher Desktop was restarted, all data from the current session was lost because it was never written to disk. Theoretically, this could also have happened on Linux, but it has only been reported in macOS (#9754 and #10133)

Upgrade trivy 0.68.2 → 0.70.0

This upgrade also includes an upgrade to trivy 0.70.0 because the 0.68.2 version is no longer available for download. There are no known issues with 0.68.2; it just is no longer accessible.

Release Notes for 1.22.1

The 1.22.1 release did not fix the bug it was supposed to fix and was replaced with Rancher Desktop 1.22.2.

Release Notes for 1.22.0

What's New

Select moby storage driver

Version 1.21.0 switched to the containerd-snapshotter storage driver by default. On Windows, this happened unconditionally (even on upgrades), which made existing images inaccessible.

Users can now choose between the classic and containerd-snapshotter storage drivers via rdctl:

rdctl set --container-engine.moby-storage-driver classic
rdctl set --container-engine.moby-storage-driver snapshotter

Rancher Desktop automatically selects the driver based on where your existing images are stored. See Migrating Images for instructions on moving images between storage drivers. Windows users affected by the 1.21.0 issue can switch back to the classic driver to regain access to their images. (#9732)

Docker 29 in the VM

Alpine Linux has been updated to version 3.23, which includes Docker 29. This fixes issues with docker inspect returning incomplete image metadata. (#9671, #9739)

Kubernetes Dashboard improvements

Pod log streaming now works in the Dashboard. This was broken since version 1.6.0. (#3212)

The Dashboard button now waits until the Steve API server accepts connections before becoming active. Previously, clicking the button too quickly after Kubernetes started would show a spinner that never resolved. (#8217)

The non-functional "Download KubeConfig" and "Kubectl Shell" buttons have been removed from the cluster dashboard. (#2208, #8151, #8757)

Docker Compose 5.0

Docker Compose has been updated to version 5.0. Key changes include:

• Compose can now be used as an SDK for third-party integrations
• The internal builder has been removed; builds are delegated to Docker Bake
• Hooks now run on restart
• New --wait option for the start command

Helm 4.0

Helm has been updated to version 4.0. See the Helm 4.0 release notes for details on the changes.

Diagnostics

Moby image store check

A new diagnostic reports when images exist in the inactive image store (classic vs. containerd-snapshotter), helping identify which images need migration. (#9733)

Windows: wsl-vpnkit detection

A new diagnostic warns when the wsl-vpnkit distribution is present, as it can cause networking issues with Rancher Desktop. (#9623)

Bug Fixes

macOS CA management with multiple keychains

Fixed a bug where certificates from multiple keychains were being written to the same file path, causing only the last keychain's certificates to be processed. (#9755)

K3s version channel labels not updating

Fixed an issue where version channel labels (e.g, stable, latest, v1.xx) were not removed from old versions when they moved to newer versions, causing multiple patch versions to appear in the recommended list. (#9709)

K3s image loading for older versions

Made the --all-platforms flag optional when loading K3s images, so older K3s versions (before 1.31) load images correctly. (#9708, #9710)

rdctl info works after upgrade

Fixed an issue where rdctl info failed with a BusyBox error for users who upgraded from version 1.19.3 or earlier, or restored an old snapshot. The 1.21.0 release notes mentioned a manual workaround; this is no longer needed. (#9546, #9554)

Containers page error handling

Fixed an "[object Object]" error that appeared on the Containers page when the backend became temporarily unavailable. (#9545, #9661)

Connectivity check uses HTTPS

The network connectivity diagnostic now uses an HTTPS HEAD request instead of HTTP GET, improving privacy by encrypting the request. (#9711)

Linux packaging fixes

Fixed an issue where the Debian package did not set the suid bit on chrome-sandbox, causing the application to fail to start on Debian and Ubuntu systems.

The virtualization support check now works correctly on Linux arm64 systems.

Extension fixes

Fixed several issues with Docker Desktop extensions:

• Uninstall and upgrade buttons on the Installed tab now work correctly
• Extension metadata and icons refresh properly after reinstalling an extension
• Extensions without containers no longer cause errors during uninstall
• The ddClient.extension object now includes the id and version fields as specified by the Docker Desktop Extension API

Updates to Bundled Utilities (from Rancher Desktop 1.21.0)

• docker 29.0.2 → 29.1.4
• docker-compose 2.40.3 → 5.0.1
• docker-credential-helpers 0.9.4 → 0.9.5
• helm 3.19.1 → 4.0.5
• nerdctl 2.2.0 → 2.2.1
• trivy 0.67.2 → 0.70.0

Unchanged:

• amazon-ecr-credential-helper 0.11.0
• docker-buildx 0.30.1
• kuberlr 0.6.1
• spin 3.5.1
• spin-shim 0.22.0
• spin-operator 0.6.1

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.21.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.22.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.22.1

This is the 1.22.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

⚠️ This release was broken and has been withdrawn. If you already installed it (on Linux or macOS), please revert back to 1.22.0 and reboot the computer. ⚠️

Rancher Desktop 1.22

This is the 1.22.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Release Notes for 1.22.0

What's New

Select moby storage driver

Version 1.21.0 switched to the containerd-snapshotter storage driver by default. On Windows, this happened unconditionally (even on upgrades), which made existing images inaccessible.

Users can now choose between the classic and containerd-snapshotter storage drivers via rdctl:

rdctl set --container-engine.moby-storage-driver classic
rdctl set --container-engine.moby-storage-driver snapshotter

Rancher Desktop automatically selects the driver based on where your existing images are stored. See Migrating Images for instructions on moving images between storage drivers. Windows users affected by the 1.21.0 issue can switch back to the classic driver to regain access to their images. (#9732)

Docker 29 in the VM

Alpine Linux has been updated to version 3.23, which includes Docker 29. This fixes issues with docker inspect returning incomplete image metadata. (#9671, #9739)

Kubernetes Dashboard improvements

Pod log streaming now works in the Dashboard. This was broken since version 1.6.0. (#3212)

The Dashboard button now waits until the Steve API server accepts connections before becoming active. Previously, clicking the button too quickly after Kubernetes started would show a spinner that never resolved. (#8217)

The non-functional "Download KubeConfig" and "Kubectl Shell" buttons have been removed from the cluster dashboard. (#2208, #8151, #8757)

Docker Compose 5.0

Docker Compose has been updated to version 5.0. Key changes include:

• Compose can now be used as an SDK for third-party integrations
• The internal builder has been removed; builds are delegated to Docker Bake
• Hooks now run on restart
• New --wait option for the start command

Helm 4.0

Helm has been updated to version 4.0. See the Helm 4.0 release notes for details on the changes.

Diagnostics

Moby image store check

A new diagnostic reports when images exist in the inactive image store (classic vs. containerd-snapshotter), helping identify which images need migration. (#9733)

Windows: wsl-vpnkit detection

A new diagnostic warns when the wsl-vpnkit distribution is present, as it can cause networking issues with Rancher Desktop. (#9623)

Bug Fixes

macOS CA management with multiple keychains

Fixed a bug where certificates from multiple keychains were being written to the same file path, causing only the last keychain's certificates to be processed. (#9755)

K3s version channel labels not updating

Fixed an issue where version channel labels (e.g, stable, latest, v1.xx) were not removed from old versions when they moved to newer versions, causing multiple patch versions to appear in the recommended list. (#9709)

K3s image loading for older versions

Made the --all-platforms flag optional when loading K3s images, so older K3s versions (before 1.31) load images correctly. (#9708, #9710)

rdctl info works after upgrade

Fixed an issue where rdctl info failed with a BusyBox error for users who upgraded from version 1.19.3 or earlier, or restored an old snapshot. The 1.21.0 release notes mentioned a manual workaround; this is no longer needed. (#9546, #9554)

Containers page error handling

Fixed an "[object Object]" error that appeared on the Containers page when the backend became temporarily unavailable. (#9545, #9661)

Connectivity check uses HTTPS

The network connectivity diagnostic now uses an HTTPS HEAD request instead of HTTP GET, improving privacy by encrypting the request. (#9711)

Linux packaging fixes

Fixed an issue where the Debian package did not set the suid bit on chrome-sandbox, causing the application to fail to start on Debian and Ubuntu systems.

The virtualization support check now works correctly on Linux arm64 systems.

Extension fixes

Fixed several issues with Docker Desktop extensions:

• Uninstall and upgrade buttons on the Installed tab now work correctly
• Extension metadata and icons refresh properly after reinstalling an extension
• Extensions without containers no longer cause errors during uninstall
• The ddClient.extension object now includes the id and version fields as specified by the Docker Desktop Extension API

Updates to Bundled Utilities (from Rancher Desktop 1.21.0)

• docker 29.0.2 → 29.1.4
• docker-compose 2.40.3 → 5.0.1
• docker-credential-helpers 0.9.4 → 0.9.5
• helm 3.19.1 → 4.0.5
• nerdctl 2.2.0 → 2.2.1
• trivy 0.67.2 → 0.68.2

Unchanged:

• amazon-ecr-credential-helper 0.11.0
• docker-buildx 0.30.1
• kuberlr 0.6.1
• spin 3.5.1
• spin-shim 0.22.0
• spin-operator 0.6.1

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.21.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.22.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.21

This is the 1.21.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

⚠️ WARNING for Windows users using the Moby container engine ⚠️

This 1.21.0 release is going to change the docker storage driver from the "classic" setting to the containerd-snapshotter (see below). This is supposed to only happen on new installs or after factory resets.

On Windows however, this is happening unconditionally. Any existing images will become inaccessible by the new driver. They are not deleted (and will continue to take up disk space in the VM). They will get deleted by a factory-reset.

In the 1.22.0 release, we will provide a mechanism to switch back and forth between the classic and the snapshotter driver. This will give users the capability to either clean out the old images or to export them, and then re-import them under the other driver.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Release Notes for 1.21.0

What's New

rdctl info command

rdctl has a new info command that lists the Rancher Desktop version and the IP address of the VM:

❯ rdctl info
Version:   v1.21.0
IPAddress: 192.168.205.2

You can query individual fields for use in scripts:

❯ rdctl info --field ip-address
192.168.205.2

Note: this command is failing for users who have been upgrading Rancher Desktop from version 1.19.3 or earlier, or then restored a snapshot that was based on an earlier installation. If this is happening, you can fix your setup by running:

rdctl shell sudo apk add iproute2

This fix will remain in place until you perform a factory reset or restore from an older snapshot again.

Increasing disk size (Linux and macOS)

Rancher Desktop by default reserves 100GB of disk space for the VM (it is a sparse file, so only the portion in use actually takes up disk space on the host).

It is now possible to increase the maximum size of the VM disk using rdctl:

❯ rdctl set --experimental.virtual-machine.disk-size 120G
Status: reconfiguring Rancher Desktop to apply changes (this may take a while).

This will restart Rancher Desktop, at which time the volume will expand to the larger size. Please note that it is not possible to reduce the maximum size. Unused space in the VM disk will be returned for host usage every time Rancher Desktop is restarted (via fstrim).

There is no GUI mechanism to change the maximum disk size.

Update checker only checks once a day

Rancher Desktop will only check for updates once per day now instead of every hour. This interval is not configurable but the update checks can be disabled completely via both rdctl and the GUI.

Online checker frequency is configurable

By default, Rancher Desktop checks every 5 seconds to update the "online" indicator. It does this by checking for the right redirect response from http://docs.rancherdesktop.io (to https). This also detects when the computer is caught inside a captive portal, like airport or hotel wifi.

You can now change the frequency of this check to a longer value (in milliseconds) or disable it completely by setting it to 0:

❯ rdctl set --diagnostics.connectivity.interval 0
Status: settings updated; no restart required.

Electron will still perform its own online checks (which will also update the Rancher Desktop indicators) but those checks are somewhat unreliable.

There is no mechanism in the GUI to change this setting.

Container Info page with logs

@tylercritchlow has moved the container logs to a container info page. You get to the info page either by clicking the container name or through the menu at the end of the line.

moby now uses containerd snapshotter by default

On new installations, or after a factory reset, Rancher Desktop will now use the containerd snapshotter for storing container images by default. This snapshotter provides additional functionality, such as storing/pushing/pulling multi-platform images. It is also needed for using Wasm containers with docker. This means Rancher Desktop will no longer switch between snapshotters when turning Wasm support on or off, so local images will remain visible to both configuration options.

Updated extensions

The "SUSE Application Collection" extension can now display the collection without having to log in first.

Bug fixes

UDP port forwarding fixed on Linux and macOS

It was already working on Windows. Thanks to @toshs for finding and fixing the issue.

Shadows on macOS 26 Tahoe

Window shadows had a performance issue on macOS 26. This has been fixed by upgrading the Electron version.

Updates to Bundled Utilities (from Rancher Desktop 1.20.1, as of 1.21.0)

• amazon-ecr-credential-helper 0.10.1 → 0.11.0
• docker 28.3.3 → 29.0.2
• docker-buildx 0.26.1 → 0.30.1
• docker-compose 2.39.2 → 2.40.3
• docker-credential-helpers 0.9.3 → 0.9.4
• helm 3.18.6 → 3.19.1
• kuberlr unchanged 0.6.1
• moby/buildkit 0.21.1 → 0.25.2
• nerdctl 2.1.3 → 2.2.0
• spin 3.3.1 → 3.5.1
• spin-shim 0.20.0 → 0.22.0
• spin-operator unchanged 0.6.1
• trivy 0.65.0 → 0.67.2

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.20.1, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.20.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.20.1

This is the 1.20.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Release Notes for 1.20.1

This release updates the bundled docker-compose from version 2.39.2 to 2.40.3 to address CVE-2025-62725.

There are no other changes in this patch release.

New Contributors

Thank you to our new contributors: @proski, @lavigneer, and @tylercritchlow!

Release Notes for 1.20.0

What's New

Container Logs

Thanks to @tylercritchlow, the Containers dashboard can now display the container logs. The Logs command is accessible under the ⋮ menu on the right hand side, so it's a bit hidden. This will automatically scroll to the end of the log and it updates automatically as more logs come in.

Container Dashboard Improvements

@tylercritchlow has also made changes to the Containers dashboard itself: it will now automatically update as containers are created, started, stopped or deleted. You no longer need to refresh manually.

As well, containers are now grouped together, either by Kubernetes pod, by docker-compose deployment or in the "Standalone Containers" group for everything else. Groups can individually be collapsed and expanded.

New Volumes page

Another new feature thanks to @tylercritchlow: On the Volumes page, you can see a list of all volumes managed by the container runtime and, if required, delete volumes.

New rdctl reset command

@lavigneer has contributed the new rdctl reset command. It is a refinement of the rdctl factory-reset command, which is still supported, but now deprecated and hidden. It adds the ability to delete the Kubernetes version cache, which was previously only possible from within the GUI.

Command	Function
rdctl reset --vm	deletes VM and creates a new with the same settings
rdctl reset --k8s	deletes deployed Kubernetes workloads
rdctl reset --cache	deletes cached Kubernetes images
rdctl reset --factory	deletes VM and shows first-start dialog again

All options can be combined but some combinations are redundant:

• --factory includes --vm and k8s (but not --cache)
• --vm includes --k8s

VZ emulation mode is now the default on macOS

On a fresh install, or after a factory reset, the default emulation mode on macOS is now VZ instead of QEMU.

The default mount type with VZ is now virtiofs, which is no longer considered "experimental".

Additional locations for system deployment profiles

On macOS, Rancher Desktop will check for system deployment profiles first in /Library/Managed Preferences. If no profile is found there, then it looks in the previous default location at /Library/Preferences. This allows deploying system profiles using MDM solutions.

On Linux, Rancher Desktop continues to look in /etc/rancher-desktop first. But if no profile is found there, it will now also check /usr/etc/rancher-desktop for a system profile before looking in the user profile location.

Additional Diagnostics

When using the moby container engine, Rancher Desktop will now run diagnostics checks to verify that the current docker context is rancher-desktop and that DOCKER_HOST is not set.

On Windows, there is also a new diagnostic that will trigger when the WSL2 version is too old.

Updated extensions

The extension catalog now lists the latest releases of "Epinio", "Open WebUI" and the "SUSE Application Collection".

The "Open WebUI" extension no longer binds to a specific version, but will always attempt to fetch the latest release when it is being restarted.

Vue.JS has been upgraded from Vue2 → Vue3

The Vue JavaScript framework has been updated to the latest version, which required a rather large amount of internal changes. Ideally, this should not be user-visible. Please report any regressions to the GitHub issue tracker.

Bug fixes

Code signing for spin has been fixed

In the previous releases, a bug in the code signed prevented spin from executing applications locally.

Updates to Bundled Utilities (from Rancher Desktop 1.19.3, as of 1.20.0)

• amazon-ecr-credential-helper 0.9.1 → 0.10.1
• docker 28.1.1 → 28.3.3
• docker-buildx 0.25.0 → 0.26.1
• docker-compose 2.37.1 → 2.39.2
• docker-credential-helpers unchanged 0.9.3
• helm 3.18.3 → 3.18.6
• kuberlr 0.6.0 → 0.6.1
• moby/buildkit unchanged 0.21.1
• nerdctl 2.1.1 → 2.1.3
• spin unchanged 3.3.1
• spin-shim 0.19.0 → 0.20.0
• spin-operator 0.5.0 → 0.6.1
• trivy 0.62.1 → 0.65.0

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.19.3, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.20.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.20.0

This is the 1.20.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

New Contributors

Thank you to our new contributors: @proski, @lavigneer, and @tylercritchlow!

Release Notes for 1.20.0

What's New

Container Logs

Thanks to @tylercritchlow, the Containers dashboard can now display the container logs. The Logs command is accessible under the ⋮ menu on the right hand side, so it's a bit hidden. This will automatically scroll to the end of the log and it updates automatically as more logs come in.

Container Dashboard Improvements

@tylercritchlow has also made changes to the Containers dashboard itself: it will now automatically update as containers are created, started, stopped or deleted. You no longer need to refresh manually.

As well, containers are now grouped together, either by Kubernetes pod, by docker-compose deployment or in the "Standalone Containers" group for everything else. Groups can individually be collapsed and expanded.

New Volumes page

Another new feature thanks to @tylercritchlow: On the Volumes page, you can see a list of all volumes managed by the container runtime and, if required, delete volumes.

New rdctl reset command

@lavigneer has contributed the new rdctl reset command. It is a refinement of the rdctl factory-reset command, which is still supported, but now deprecated and hidden. It adds the ability to delete the Kubernetes version cache, which was previously only possible from within the GUI.

Command	Function
rdctl reset --vm	deletes VM and creates a new with the same settings
rdctl reset --k8s	deletes deployed Kubernetes workloads
rdctl reset --cache	deletes cached Kubernetes images
rdctl reset --factory	deletes VM and shows first-start dialog again

All options can be combined but some combinations are redundant:

• --factory includes --vm and k8s (but not --cache)
• --vm includes --k8s

VZ emulation mode is now the default on macOS

On a fresh install, or after a factory reset, the default emulation mode on macOS is now VZ instead of QEMU.

The default mount type with VZ is now virtiofs, which is no longer considered "experimental".

Additional locations for system deployment profiles

On macOS, Rancher Desktop will check for system deployment profiles first in /Library/Managed Preferences. If no profile is found there, then it looks in the previous default location at /Library/Preferences. This allows deploying system profiles using MDM solutions.

On Linux, Rancher Desktop continues to look in /etc/rancher-desktop first. But if no profile is found there, it will now also check /usr/etc/rancher-desktop for a system profile before looking in the user profile location.

Additional Diagnostics

When using the moby container engine, Rancher Desktop will now run diagnostics checks to verify that the current docker context is rancher-desktop and that DOCKER_HOST is not set.

On Windows, there is also a new diagnostic that will trigger when the WSL2 version is too old.

Updated extensions

The extension catalog now lists the latest releases of "Epinio", "Open WebUI" and the "SUSE Application Collection".

The "Open WebUI" extension no longer binds to a specific version, but will always attempt to fetch the latest release when it is being restarted.

Vue.JS has been upgraded from Vue2 → Vue3

The Vue JavaScript framework has been updated to the latest version, which required a rather large amount of internal changes. Ideally, this should not be user-visible. Please report any regressions to the GitHub issue tracker.

Bug fixes

Code signing for spin has been fixed

In the previous releases, a bug in the code signed prevented spin from executing applications locally.

Updates to Bundled Utilities (from Rancher Desktop 1.19.3, as of 1.20.0)

• amazon-ecr-credential-helper 0.9.1 → 0.10.1
• docker 28.1.1 → 28.3.3
• docker-buildx 0.25.0 → 0.26.1
• docker-compose 2.37.1 → 2.39.2
• docker-credential-helpers unchanged 0.9.3
• helm 3.18.3 → 3.18.6
• kuberlr 0.6.0 → 0.6.1
• moby/buildkit unchanged 0.21.1
• nerdctl 2.1.1 → 2.1.3
• spin unchanged 3.3.1
• spin-shim 0.19.0 → 0.20.0
• spin-operator 0.5.0 → 0.6.1
• trivy 0.62.1 → 0.65.0

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.19.3, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.20.0 milestone.